Special Guest – Mario Hajro

Count money man money that gritches fine fine told trying to tell them on the beast

What's up gang welcome to another episode of the grind cast get ready

It's a new day in anybody that listens to the videos at all if anybody watches the grind videos

One of my favorites is

Immigrant mentality and and and the mindset that that that some of the

Folks in America that have had

Unbelievable success even though they were not from this country came here didn't really even speak the language

And you know

I mean just not even playing field and they end up dominating and it's there's just examples all over the place

Just and a lot of it is the mindset and the mentality of just needing an opportunity and willing to do whatever it takes

And and so you know Mario fits that mold you know to me

Mario when when I think of when I hear immigrant

I think positive things a lot of people hear negative things when they hear immigrant like people like when you do stuff like this

In my experience with a lot of other people out there

From other countries is is like I just got so much respect for the mindset because it's similar to the hustle

So similar to similar to coming up the way we came up where you got to be tough

You got to be mentally tough shit ain't gonna be good. You're not dealt a

perfect hand

And those people I can I can definitely relate to amongst other people, but you know

This this gentleman is gonna be talking to us today that we're gonna be interviewing Mario Hyro

is as a special special cat so he I got introduced to to Mario through my mentor Marcus Smith and

Some of some of you know you know no Marcus and Mario I believe was in college and and he would drive

for for me and Marcus and

Now he's a millionaire so he went from a driver to a millionaire

Okay, and and so let's just started off with that so

Mario maybe would you mind just telling a little bit about you know who you are your story not only with the company

But even before that you know who you are

Simon I really really appreciate the opportunity and to me it's it's mind blowing to know that

I'm right here on your podcast and you know to think about that I've made myself

valuable enough that you would invite me on this on this podcast is just you know

It makes me very excited

Because I always try to keep myself humble, but a little bit about myself

So I've been in America since 2005

My mom

brought my brother and I on

$10,000 borrow dollars that she got from her brother my uncle and she brought us to this country to this amazing country with with a vision that

My brother and I we would have an opportunity

To grow and and get better and educate ourselves and and just basically

You know be successful here, but she didn't have a plan other than just getting here

We didn't speak a word English, you know at the time. So thanks to my mom my mom's aunt and her husband

They actually found us housing. We stayed with them for about two months and

Not only did they find us jobs, but they they literally gave us a refrigerator full of food because we really didn't have any money

And we didn't know how we were gonna be successful. We just basically came here and

We wanted you know, we wanted to work hard, but we literally didn't speak a word English

So I mean we definitely have come a long way

But it wasn't easy starting out and so little by little, you know

I got my first job my first job was a dishwasher

So I was like the joke around, you know call me Tony Montana

You know, so my first time

Tony

So so my first job was a dishwasher he lasted for three days. I literally burned my finger

Grabbing one of the hot pants because I have no idea about washing dishes or or how to do it and

So from from there, you know, I fed jobs as a toaster boy

You know, you know, I fed cleaning jobs and you know, you mentioned you say jobs as a toaster boy

Man

We're gonna learn now with a toaster desk

No, what is it?

So this is funny so I worked at a diner right

It's called my friends Dilly in in Lakewood, Ohio and so the diner basically they were so structured with everything that they did

So they had the bus boys they had the waiters, but they had someone who was all their job was making toast

I was so proud of that job that you know, I would always joke around and say I make the best toast and I butter every single corner

Oh, come on with it

So that's that's pretty much what I did now you're still making that brand now

Come on, but it get the toast maker the toast maker. That's amazing. That's funny

That's funny. Look at that you started with bread doing it the right way now. It's a lot of it

You know what I mean?

Come on

Leries and so from that point on I've you know, I've cleaned offices and

You know, I actually used to work for a positively Cleveland at the time

But before I even got the office job I used to clean those offices

But one of the vice presidents at the time of sales then Williams

He actually that's one of my guys. He actually saw how hard I worked and he basically

Well, they created a position for me to be a secretary and so from that point on when I got laid off

That position that's when I got introduced to American income life

Wow, so one of my best friends at the time

graduated from John Carroll University and

So he started working at American income and I had no idea what American income was about and I had no idea

Anything about insurance. I started working it took me five times to pass the test

But I just would not give up right and

You know, so I started working at American income and I honestly had no idea what a hundred percent commission position was

To be honest with you for about two months into it. I thought I was getting paid hourly

I literally had no clue

And so basically I'll jump you know, I jump right into it the scripts were laid out laid out for me

The vision was casted for me all I had to do is just put in the work and

But I always felt like I had a chip on my shoulder, right?

So what I did was after a year a year of working with American income. I did very well and

You know, I decided to go back to school because I met my fiance at the time and

I made my wife now my girlfriend at the time I met her and she was actually

Getting to her masters in accounting and she talked about wanting to be a CPA which she is now and so I'm like

I need to step my education game upside decided to go back to school and when I went back to school

Marcus Smith, you know my mentor

So he decided to keep me around and all I was going to do is train other agents on making sales

So basically I just had to go in the field with them show them our business show them the deal

Well, I get to do that, you know, he also wanted to make sure that I made a little bit more money

So he had me drive him whenever he would go out to dinner because I knew Cleveland very well

I used to go out a lot so he would just have me drive and anytime

You would have a guest or one of his friends dropping town. I would be the driver and

So that was a huge opportunity for me, which I'm sure we're gonna talk about that a little bit in detail

So but for five years

All I did is just train other agents and I saw a lot of people with a lot of potential a lot of people with

You know a lot of work ethic that were coming to this business and would succeed and I saw a lot of individuals with lots of talent

However, they would fail

Did your friend from John Carroll that introduced you to this opportunity? Is he still with the company?

He's no longer with the company

As soon as you were telling me that I knew it and so there's a teaching point right there not to knock him because he may be in

In somewhere he's supposed to be and maybe that's the direction that God is bringing him in

It doesn't mean that every person but what I will say is it does show that

You know typically your pass up most people just by not quitting and how much of this success game

Is about just don't stop when everybody else quits

Well, no one else when this person can't take the shit no more

You can go a little bit longer when this person starts to you know say screw this or gas out

You you find a way to to take another breath and move forward and that's really more than you know 80 90% of it is

Is that so that's just one example

Right there of how many people if their friend don't do it then they don't want to do it

You know what I mean and it's like okay, maybe that's why he was here

He was supposed to intervene and divine intervention you know what I mean

I couldn't I couldn't agree with you more and what allowed me to become successful so quick when I came back full time

In American income is exactly what you just mentioned

Well, I was actually I get exposed to many different talents and I got exposed to many different individuals

But I actually got to see them fail and I got people you know

I got to watch them grow right so for me. I know what needed to be done

So anyone that would try to be too smart than what the system is they would fail and all the ones that were very

Culturable and the grinders, you know, they succeeded. So that's why I came back full time

You know, so three years ago and I was able to grow so quick

To now being one of the agency owners

In Southern California. So but that's exactly the idea. I got the exposure on on what not to do and I got the exposure

On what to do and and that's one of the main reasons why I was able to grow so quick

Do you think having a you know being in an immigrant plays a part at all if at all in your success level

So I would say being an immigrant has a huge part

To being successful because um, I feel like many people in this country

Don't understand, you know, the opportunity that they have or maybe they're just so used to it and they're numb to it

Right, so it's possible that they're very numb to it because for me

I know what's on the other side right?

So a lot of people fight the opportunity right based on you know, what's what else is out there right?

You know what's on the other side? I came from the other side. Hey, man

I know what it's like to to be broke

I know what it's like not having an opportunity here's what I always say

Simon what I always say is there's 50 states right 50 states in America that speak the same language

My country Albania has three million people that live in it

If you drive two hours one direction

You're gonna be in Greece

They don't speak the same language

So if you're an entrepreneur if you're a business owner you're not gonna be able to conduct business with them

Yes, whereas here you have all this population. It's such a huge huge population. You just got to grind

Wow, wow makes a lot of sense

Why why would you think?

You know immigrants, you know

Not all but I mean like I got a good friend Emory he's from Turkey

He's he's a beast in I mean I got a bunch

So why do you think that is that that that so many immigrants have come here and and had success

Well, you know more than even people that were born here like work why

I grind like what you do. I feel like there's two types of immigrants right the ones that make it here

And they think they arrived right, you know, they think that you know

We're comfortable because we're in a better country where you know, we're in a better opportunity and if we do just enough

To be able to have a good lifestyle

You know, they're gonna be good and there's gonna be the ones who constantly remind themselves or of where they came from

To keep themselves humble

But constantly strive for greatness and constantly get better and better and better so this is

Land of opportunities. So for me. I remind myself all the time that

Your mom bar with $10,000, right?

We had nothing

So I never look at my big account and I never have a financial goal

Because you will get that goal. I mean you will hit that goal. You will get the money here eventually

But if money is your only goal in life you will get there eventually then you're gonna be very

Demotivated. Yeah, so I tried it. I tried to constantly get better and better and better and help out as many people as possible

And and so I always always always look for what's next

Because I didn't come to this country to be average my mom left her entire family behind yeah in order for

My brother and I to have this opportunity. So you would be literally

Me disrespecting my mom if I didn't try my best way

I look at it too. Yeah, and that's what that's why

Vasu saying it was another immigrant. I mean his family was

That his mom and dad barely speak the the language sacrifice creates opportunity

Crazy, so you came here in 2005 with your mom

Got $10,000 to come down here 15 years you've been here just now what 2020 so when you started

You were driving for markets in Simon. How did that even like like and now I mean like how did I even come about like you're driving

What nice cars like all the good cars

That way

Like yeah, so I always you know, it always tell my wife that um, you know being able to drive for markets and you know when Simon would come in town

Being able to drive for Simon. I would always tell her it's such an opportunity

To be able to be around people that are very successful successful because you get to see what they think you get to see how they behave

And we're not talking about

guys that you know just inherited a million dollars we're talking about individuals that start from scratch and

That you know develop the discipline and created a certain mindset and envision themselves to be where they are now

So just me being around this guy's I would get excited I would miss

On family events because Marcus with Texas. Yeah, I have someone you know someone in town

Can you driving you would literally take me three hours before I would drop everything because of the fear of

Missing out on knowledge the fear of missing out on the opportunity

So I looked at that driving job is not me earning for driving

Correct. I looked at that that driving job is as me getting the opportunity to just ease drop. Yeah of what they're talking about

Yeah, so like when Simon and Marcus, you know would communicate with you know with each other

You know parts of it would be them, you know having fun for for 99% of it was them constantly talking about

How much you know they care about their people and you know they're constantly talking about how they're gonna help others grow and is just

To me, I'm constantly is driving so I'm driving but but primarily

I'm trying to soak up everything that they're talking about so that's the way I looked at that position

Boom that's what me you got in common man. I'm his driver now too and so many other things go

You know, I mean so I'm waiting on that million dollars to come to right down

You know, I mean

Think of think about this, you know how hard is it to drive with these guys when they pay for your dinners?

You know you get to go hang out with them. They literally take care of you know take you drive all the fancy cars and you get to

You know listen to them right?

Isn't that crazy? Yeah, definitely a blessing and and and the thing about perm is I get to be me

Yeah, you know the main it's it's it's for this comfortable completely. He's known me for my whole life

So I don't need to worry about you know being someone that people expect me to be or you know

It's just like I'm just being me. You know the main which is what I try to do all the time. He just never grew

What is never so Simon Simon?

I feel like at this point I speak a little bit better English, but I still don't know what firm is

Well, Perm okay, he wants to know what perm is he says what does the P E R M

What is the letter sand for okay, Perm is stands for Perm well

When I don't know if you ever seen Friday the first Friday that ever came out with ice cube smoke dog and all that have you ever seen that?

Sinol through you. Okay. All right, so we're right here together now, right? Okay now you remember big perm big worm

That was driving the ice dream truck with the girls. Yeah, yeah, I was kind of that guy

Yeah, so so I was kind of that guy

So I was in school at the time and I was coming down the hall this movie had just came out I had banana curls

Just like Perm worm drove a pink parisia

Pink car came down and and and and this girl was like what's up big perm big worm?

And I was like and it's stuck she kept calling me every day what up big perm

Be perm and this has got big you know what I mean?

So that was I was kind of that guy. So that's how it became that I was I was driving the ice cream truck

You know I'm saying man. Oh man. I love it. I love it. I love it. I have big pair

Any any any memories stick out

to you of

Our your interaction as a driver with me and me a Marcus at all. I wonder which one sticks out to you funny

I have lots of memories, but I'm gonna mention two that I think are extremely important right?

Well one of them is you know, it's hilarious to me because

You calling Marcus Donald Duck

You used to love it because Marcus don't let people bust his chops

So I'm sure it's great to see someone bust his back

But but I called Marcus Donald Duck because if you play that song that Donald duck theme song who never starts an argument

Who never would think it's starting to fight

Who gets stuck with all the bad luck nobody but don't like would if you really just listen to that

That's that's my dog and he got a hard to go and he's an animal in business

Fricking straight genius and and his his temper

His his fuse is like the fire like the fireworks the little ones you know the main and and oh man

It's so fun for me to get him you know to get him all worked

And when he gets all worked up and he's yeah, he started acting like Donald Duck when his face turns red and smoke comes out of his ears and stuff

So that's that's where he got got the nickname

Donald duck what up? I feel like that moment right there would have been a podcast because you guys going back and forth because of

The relationship that you have annoying when they're not if that would be a layer shot out to Marcus on that one

Let's go

And the part where it always you know

It always like it's stuck with me is the level of discipline and patience that both you and Marcus had

So I remember Simon what when you would constantly get calls from your leaders and

Sometimes we know that business can be challenging so sometimes your leaders could vent to you

But it's just not only did you focus on constantly motivating them and

Kind of pointing out areas of improvement

But even when you're off the call

Like what really stood out to me most is that even when you're off the call

You constantly kept talking about the the leader's potential and you you constantly would have conversation with Mark is about

How great your people were so just you always seeing the best in people?

You know, it's it's incredible to me because this was like three years ago

And just like three four years ago, right? Yes, you know look at your business now

You know some of your leaders like have literally double tripled their income in just two three years

But if you didn't handle things the way you did right maybe they wouldn't be here

Maybe the business wouldn't be to where it is right now right so for me

It's constantly a reminder of maybe pushing the people discipline in them

But when you get off that call is really truly appreciating them and

Not really being annoyed annoyed by them. I don't think I've ever seen and I've been around you a lot

Come on. I've been around you a lot

I don't think I've ever seen you

Get off the call and and that mouth somebody

So it's always highlighting all of their goods and areas

So it's almost you don't want to me that you constantly kept reminding yourself of

What this person is and what their potential is I feel like that's what started with Perm because

Everybody used to wonder they like man why why are you hanging around this dude?

Yeah, the main because Perm had a big old go chain

You know the main and he was like you know the mean like man

You still roll with with Perm look at him. You know the mean big here and everything like yeah

So I just I just try to keep it real and see the best in everybody because when you can get past

You know the beard and and and and you know being four hundred five hundred pounds

I mean I'm gonna come with a territory. I don't know

I'm like now but we need to get past that okay

Okay, great this guy glad Perm

Don't mad you want me to just carry the load here. You know what I mean what are you gonna do?

So I heard my man

You made over a million dollars, right?

Save say you say say you say you say you have a million dollars right now like you have a

You can go

Send it to me shots of my accounts and posted them so I didn't make so making and

Oh, I love that something I learned from Simon areas. It's one thing to make a million dollars is another thing to save it right

So in order to save it you got to make a lot more than a million right?

Amen, so this was done in just three years three years of our business

Yeah, a million dollars just look just so you know now you told me right now that you didn't this is saved that you have it

I just want to know right now. We own there. Let me ball fight. I was right exactly what you mean you already you have it

It's here then it's in me whenever you want to get it just five you know what I mean so

You know what I you know what I think I think you know all that is when it's when you're talking about us

Not how much you make it so much you say it's it's there's there's a discipline that needs to be applied to that mindset

you know the main and and a lot of people like that that discipline to be able to do something like that

So is there any tips for you know people out there listening and you know sometimes they got the mindset of you know

You only live once or you know I'm young or you know or whatever because all I do you know

We were just talking about Steve how you know he's like man

He's 30 some years old and God bless him. He come he like runs his big purchase his by me and sometimes I tell him no

Yeah, you know what I mean? I want him to save his money so he can have the power behind him and because I know what it can do for you because

You start to be able to when you're okay yourself

You really can take any little bit of left of of selfishness out of yourself because I mean as humans

You got to survive so there's still survival in you until you're financially free

There's and even if you're a great person there just has to be a percentage of you that that focuses

You know, I got to make sure I'm okay sure and so I feel like it takes to pressure off

When you start to have that money set aside like that because now you could just really just focus on the people in

The more that that you help them get what they want the more that you'll accidentally get more stuff and and all that stuff

So what discipline tips or any tips could you give people to save money?

Absolutely now. I'm not a financial advisor

I do have my my degree in economic development though. So you know there you know

There's some some sort of a degree in economics there, but here's what I would always say a

A lot of you know a lot of what I do is you know thanks to you Simon

Thanks to Marcus because I because I feel like you know the new up and commerce in this business

You know all of us that are you know succeeding now and and we're a product of your guys's leadership

So I feel like I have in that proper coaching

You're constantly preaching saving money Marcus Matt Parks is constantly preaching about saving money

So for me I always told myself before I make a big purchase

I'm going to have a certain amount of money in the bank right to so I wanted to save

$50,000 before I bought my S class right and

Then I would have

Marcus and Matt Parks and say why just 50,000?

Why not a hundred and fifty thousand saved before you before you buy the car and when you're when you come up for when you come from nothing

You're like well, yeah, I don't know. I guess I had limitations in my head and in my thinking and and so I so literally

I didn't have an answer to that question as though why not a hundred and fifty thousand so I'm like you know what?

Let's just do it right so I just basically you know set a goal

And I just constantly remind myself of actors if you don't have any money

Don't look at the bank account right because

One of the biggest mistakes that people that come

From no money people that don't come from money make is as soon as they get a little bit of money

They think they made it right and they start splurging 100% right

But the ones who are educated on how to manage money properly right?

They're always gonna get better and better financially so for me

Number one is I tried not to make expensive purchases and if I was going to I would try to double the amount of savings that I had

Before I was gonna make those purchases

I feel like that part right there kept me grounded then the other parts time and you know what's crazy?

In our business

Sometimes the money can come so quick

That if you put in the work that you couldn't spend it fast enough and I was so busy working that where was I gonna spend my money?

Yeah, if I'm constantly working so I I always tried to stay on the grind and I constantly reminded myself

Same what I needed to do so if I'm not you know if I'm not spinning it and I'm working

It's only gonna grow and grow and grow another thing that's you know is that sticks out about that process and story and

And all that is is that you know you had this

Million dollars saved before you became an agency owner

Out in California, so that's the beauty of our company is is that you don't have to have a specific title

So to speak in order to make that type of money because you and I both know you know

There's agents, you know that are you know don't have a team that are making a lot you know

You and I both seen people make

60 70 grand in a month 80 grand in a month just sales wise, you know to me

Let me say one thing to that Simon

There is actually agents that are making two three hundred thousand my brother his first year in business

You know made over three hundred thousand dollars, so sure there is agents that are making you know

60 70 thousand dollars, but there's also other agents that are making two three hundred thousand dollars and the

Difference is the work ethic and that's really what separates the two because

Everyone in our industry gets given the same playbook, right?

So we get the same playbook

We have the same opportunity yet to me. It's mind-boggling how you can have a top performer

Yes, and an underperform it just doesn't make any sense

And sometimes you don't know who it's gonna be sometimes your top performer someone you never thought was gonna be your top performer

Because they don't look the part

You know what I mean? They don't look the part so you pre-judge him is like nah, he's too old or it's you know

She's a girl or he's too small or this you know or whatever, you know, you start pre-judging and then all of a sudden

Often times you know in our company you'll see the award winners and the ones that are winning

You know maybe half of those people wouldn't be probably someone off the jump you would think oh that's gonna be their top

You know their top performer there so that because it's all about the heart, you know, it's about your work ethic

It's about being coachable. It's about your heart and all of those things have to happen when you know

I know me and you were talking. I think this is a one year

anniversary since you broke the record at Sarasmith.

Is that right?

With 140,000 in personal production for a month, right?

140,000 in personal production for the month.

Like in the industry for people that are not in this industry,

in the industry, that would be like the equivalent

of someone in football rushing for 500, 600 yards

in an NFL game.

You know what I'm saying?

Like the equivalent of somebody hitting five home runs

in one baseball game.

You know what I mean?

Stuff that just doesn't happen in the history of the company.

You know, 70 years now, just not normal.

So, you know, what things,

how do you make something like that happen

from the mindset to the work ethic and skill set

to celebrate this one year anniversary of breaking that record?

Well, so yeah, it is true.

I do have the current record in Ohio

and I believe that the company posted it.

It might be one of the best ones in June

in the 71-year company history as well,

which, you know, most of the agents,

you know, were average agents with our company.

They do about 13, 14, 15,000 in sales for the month.

So, I actually did 140,000 in sales for one month.

So, definitely a big difference there.

But what really made that happen is

is being surrounded by individuals that are top-notch.

I actually had the opportunity to work hand-to-hand

with the current record holder,

Judge DeShon within our company.

So, he was actually my offline for a short period of time.

So, I got to learn everything that he does.

I got to see the work ethic that he had.

And that's the main reason why I was able to lock in.

But I also played better pissed off, right?

And so, there was a record set in the company

by, you know, Talant Bain on my team, right?

You know, so he actually, what's funny about that is

last year that the record was set three times

from individuals that were on my team.

Wow.

So, in the month of June, I had my, you know,

one of my boys, my brother, Enzo,

he actually broke the record that same month in June.

I just broke it with a little more.

He did 120,000,

1000, I did 140.

How does your, that's kind of like what happens when,

when we sit on chairs, sometimes, and I hear,

a little crick, sometimes I break the chair,

but he permanently breaks the chair.

Well, yeah, a little bit more, we got to help him on it.

You know what I'm saying?

We got to lower it, you know, I go for short guys.

Listen, for you, how does your mom feel about you,

you know what I mean?

You know what I mean?

That, that million dollars from, you know what I mean?

From 2005 and they're like, like, how was that, bro?

Like, I know your mom was like super excited.

Like, I try to hide it.

Like, no, no, please no mom, no.

No, I'm totally kidding.

So yeah, so my, my mom actually,

so I just had her retire from working.

You know, so she moves to California with me

and she takes care of my beautiful daughter,

and I told her she doesn't have to work anymore.

And that's her, you know, her love.

She wakes up every single morning.

She's the first person to grab my daughter

when she starts crying instead of my wife.

So my mom actually moved in with me out here

because I like California.

I want to make sure that I always take care of her.

And I don't ever want her to ever work another day in her life.

That was one of my biggest goals.

Starting out, Mario, was to take care of my moms like that.

Let me ask you, you know, when you look at,

you know, like I remember being,

how old is your daughter?

So she's about 14 months.

Okay, I remember being on the phone with you

talking to you about how you felt bad

because your daughter was just born

and you were hitting the road on a road trip

and getting ready to be gone, you know, for a few weeks.

And spending most of the month grinding and working

and not being there and she was so young.

And it was, you know, emotional and I tried to encourage you,

you know, telling you that I know that feeling as a parent

because you know, when I leave home,

even to visit Florida for two days, you know,

I miss my daughter already.

So, you know, I have empathy for that.

But I knew that what you were doing,

if you could still find, you know,

it's not like you can't do that every month for five years.

You can't do that every month for three years.

But if you had to do it for a month once in a while,

I think it's the best thing that you could do

with the gifts that you've been given

was to sacrifice for her opportunity

and to take your family to the next level.

Somebody took you to this level, got you here.

You took the ball and did well with it.

Now it's time to go to another level

to give it to pass it on to the next generation.

And, you know, that's my mindset, man.

So, I think that's what people miss is they'll see

the million dollars, but they won't see,

they're not willing to do what you did.

Right.

So, it's like people want to do what I do,

but they don't want to do what I did.

People would like to have what you have,

but they wouldn't want to have what you were doing.

You know what I'm saying?

I didn't want to have it.

My daughter, when she was born,

she was in the NICU for two and a half weeks.

And at one point, she was the sickest baby in the NICU.

So, fighting for her life.

You know, so she had two chest tubes

and she was, you know, on all kinds of medication.

And, you know, March, you know,

that was, that's what she was born March 21st.

I wrote 70,000, you know, that March in sales.

And a lot of people, and that's personal production.

My team did 500 and some thousand in ALP,

which is, you know, how we measure our business,

but man, so a lot of people that make excuses

when it comes to family and, you know,

things that are going on in their life,

and you know, they try to make that as an excuse

as to why they're not pushing and doing things.

But we don't, when we go away, we go away.

We don't go away to be away from our family.

We do what we do for our family.

So that's the part where it's extremely important,

you know, that most people need to understand.

So June, when I say I went through all kinds of emotional hell,

you know, watching my daughter and, you know,

watching our daughter being taken away from us

after having her for three hours and putting me Q and my wife,

you know, I have a picture of my wife literally sitting in front

of the actual incubator, and we couldn't talk to our baby, right?

So in June, I went to Wisconsin,

working 32 different cities,

being a father through FaceTime,

being a husband through FaceTime,

and leading my team,

I was driving one and a half to two hours

or an hour in between appointments,

being away from my family.

So my birthday is in June, June, 20th.

So my first birthday with my daughter,

I spent it in a hotel in Wisconsin

when my daughter and my wife was in Cleveland, Ohio.

So that's one of the things that I constantly remember thinking

as I'm driving to appointments.

I'm like, you got to protect this family,

you got to put all of these families in the best situation,

but never lose the focus and motivation

that you're not trying to be away from your family.

You're doing everything all the sacrifices

that you're putting in for your family.

And when I tell you this, Simon,

I made over $150,000 in income in my pocket

in the month of June.

So at the end of June,

I didn't look back thinking about how much I missed out.

I looked back thinking about,

I'm glad that I put in the sacrifice

because now this is what I can do for my daughter.

This is what I can do for my wife.

I can make things a lot easier for them.

So...

You know, when I always tell people on the ground

that people really don't want to hear this,

but when they ask my opinion,

the older I get, the more real I'm getting to.

I mean, the older I get the more,

I'm just keeping it all the way 100 as much as I possibly can.

And when you start looking at people

and looking at what they have or what they do,

and I start telling people what it takes

is for you to miss your birthday,

you should be working on your birthday if you're on the hustle.

What are you celebrating your birthday for as a grown-ass man

or woman when you're not where you want to be yet

if you got a business to manage?

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Like if I'm a professional boxer

and I got a fight coming up and my birthday,

like I'm not going to skip out and party on my birthday

if I'm training to be a world champ.

But what I will do is,

you know, I wouldn't miss my daughter's birthday.

I wouldn't miss my wife's birthday.

I would never suggest to people to miss their kids birthday

or miss their wife's birthday

or even their mother's birthday

if they got to do something for their mom,

but your birthday.

Like that's a no-brainer.

You know, that's a no-brainer when you're coming up,

you know, grinding and stuff like that.

Well, what I always say Simon

and I think this is very important for people

to really pay attention to this.

Because this is the part that if you get this right,

you know, literally you can change your life.

People need to know their role, right?

So one thing that I've always pride myself on

is knowing my role, right?

So this is even taking it back to the driving days, right?

So I'm not too proud.

So as an individual,

I'm never going to be too proud to,

as soon as I achieve a certain level of success,

most people that achieve a certain level of success,

they want to market themselves so well to a point

where they don't want to talk about their past

because it makes them, you know,

look some kind of way, right?

I want to, you know, so here's one with a part.

You got to know your role.

So when I was a driver,

my role as a driver is to make sure that you,

Marcus Smith, had a great experience, right?

You know, I wanted to make sure I got you from point A

to point B safe, right?

And I wanted to make sure that you had the best experience,

absolutely zero stress.

So as a driver,

your responsibility is to have the owner of that car,

not having a stress.

That's why they're paying you, right?

So as a father, you have a responsibility.

It's to put food on the table, right?

As an agent,

when we start with our company,

we have a responsibility which is to protect family.

Families, as a supervising agent,

know your role,

as a general agent, know your role,

as an MGA, know your role, right?

So you got to know what your role is,

and from that point,

it's played to your role,

develop yourself.

It's okay to have a vision,

and to want to get better,

but you got to execute your role first.

So that is the part that most people just,

like they want to be this, right?

So for example,

most people want to be Simon Eris.

Most people want to,

want to be Marcus Smith and Steve Jobs.

But they're not doing what their role requires.

So how are you supposed to be this individual

when you don't even know your role?

So be execute your role first,

then you're eventually going to be promoted.

So even when I was a toaster boy,

I knew my role,

butter on all four of the corners,

and chili at the same time.

He ain't playing with that butter.

He's passionate.

That's right. Come on, man.

Butter all four.

You're all folks at.

No.

Can't miss it.

What is that?

No way.

Can't have that.

Mario, you the man, bro.

I appreciate you, man.

This time, I don't know how long we've been on here,

but it blew by having fun, dude.

Butter bread guy.

I just, your story's awesome.

I'm so proud of you.

And I appreciate you sharing some of your wisdom

and knowledge to help people out there.

If this helped anyone out there,

if you think there's anybody that can benefit from this,

I know there got to be a ton of people

after hearing your story.

I work, come on.

Please share this with other people so we can impact people.

And Mario, thanks for joining us on another episode of Grindcast.

Get ready us a new day.

Count money, man.

Money, bitches.

I'm trying to talk to my beast, bud.