Want Your Business to Take Off? Ask These 3 Questions NOW

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SUMMARY

• No journey in life is exactly the same as anyone else's either. No journey of entrepreneurship is exactly the same as someone else's.
• I recommend asking 3 questions on a regular basis. First off, ask them right now. Ask them immediately, and ask them regularly.
  • Question 1
  • Question 2
  • Question 3
• You cannot grow your business beyond the amount that you can grow yourself. You are the limiting factor.
• If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, I strongly recommend 3 areas you invest in.
• Limiting beliefs end up being the shackles to our success.
  • Example 1 - "I have to be perfect."

  • Example 2 - "I should be farther along."

  • Example 3 - "I need to be liked."
• Mentions:
  • Cash Flow Training & Spreadsheet
  • Click here to get more free resources for entrepreneurs.
• If you have any questions about this, about your business, or about working with me, email me: [email protected]    

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

"Limiting beliefs end up being the shackles to our success. Limiting beliefs hold back so many entrepreneurs. I see entrepreneurs with so much incredible opportunity, so much promise, so much drive; they could absolutely change the world, change their life, change their family's life, change other people's lives. But it’s limiting beliefs that hold them back.

Hello my fellow entrepreneurs! My name is Mike Savage, and I am the host of the SAVAGE Entrepreneur show and the founder of the Savage Secrets and Savage Secrets Academy.

Today, I've got some questions. Three questions that you and I and every entrepreneur needs to ask on a regular basis. First off, ask them right now. Ask them immediately but continue to ask them. The questions are things that I have learned throughout my journey of entrepreneurship.

I am so excited and honored to be your entrepreneur coach today. I believe that every day is a great day. If you don't think every day is a great day, you just try missing one of them. Every day we have an opportunity to grow not just our business, but we have the opportunity to grow ourselves, to grow personally.

This journey is wild. We have highs and lows, wins and losses, challenges, and we have breakthroughs. But there's a reality. We only get one chance to go through this magical journey called life, so we might as well enjoy it to its fullest. My personal mission is to help you win.

Help you win this hard-hitting, emotional and financial rollercoaster sport of Entrepreneurship, so that you can live the life of your dreams. We all deserve to be happy, healthy, self-confident leaders. So, please share this with three friends or three entrepreneurs that you know that are looking to take their business and the life to the next level."

Your Entrepreneurial Journey is Unique

"Now, let's get on to today's show. Three questions that help us, help me, help you; reflect, dig deep, and really understand the challenge. Really understand and appreciate the trip. It's not just the destination, it's the journey to the destination.

And your journey is different than my journey. My journey is different than someone else's journey. We're all at different stages. We're all at different points in this so-called entrepreneurial challenge, this trip down Entrepreneurship Lane. We're all at different spots."

Startup Mode

"You may be a startup, you may be just getting going, you may have an idea, you're ready to rock, you're ready to hit the pavement and maybe you want to quit your job and chase your dream. And man, oh man, I cannot encourage you more to do that, because like I said earlier, we don't get to go through this, screw it up and do it again. We only get one chance.

So, if you have a vision, you have your dream, you have something that you want to have accomplish, guess what? Regret to me is the worst word in the English language. When you regret that you had an opportunity to do something, and you don't do it."

Thriving Mode

"But you could be in startup mode, you could be thriving, your business could be kicking butt and you may be going to a next level. You may be going to a level where you've never been before and it can be kind of scary when you're taking your business to a place where you've never been, and all of a sudden, you've got all these new things and new challenges and new opportunities and unexpected situations that arise. So, you could be thriving."

Survival Mode

"You could be in the mode of surviving, “hey, just trying to get by man. You know, things ain't great right now. Just trying to get by.” Whatever the challenge might be, if you're in that survival mode, not a fun place to be. Sometimes when you're in that mode, you need a kick in the butt or “a checkup from the neck up,” as my buddy Zig Ziglar used to say. But surviving isn't fun."

Diving Mode

"Your business could be diving. You could be in a state where you're heading south and don't know what to do. Like, “what do I do next? My business isn't working.” Oftentimes, when we're in that mode, we need an influx. We need an influx of different thoughts, different opinions, different ideas, different perspectives. And oftentimes, it's a mindset switch. It could be an approach to business, it could be a new product, a new category, a new customer, whatever it may be, you may just need that switch flip if you're in diving mode."

"I'm Good" Mode

"Or you could be listening to this or watching this and you could be in the, “hey, you know what? I'm good. I am happy with where I'm at. I'm enjoying my business. I'm enjoying my life. I'm enjoying where I'm at in in this journey.” And I thank you for listening in, because there's one thing that to me never ends, and that is learning.

Learning never ends because we can never know it all. And if there's stuff that you want to learn, if you want to learn about how to climb Mount Everest, you want to learn about how to knit a blanket, it's always available. But the process or the journey of constantly being able to put in new stuff and keep your mind fresh and your brain fresh, it's like, always want to learn stuff. And we have those beautiful things in the world called Google and YouTube and other search engines that whatever question you might have, someone's out there.

So, if that's you and you're in a place of “I'm good,” thanks for joining us."

Snowflakes

"But we've all heard the saying that no two snowflakes are alike. Now, you may be down in Austin, Texas or Miami, Florida, or San Diego, you don't get snowflakes; but up here in Boston, we get snowflakes. And I don't know who proved this or who's out there studying but they say no snowflake is exactly the same as another snowflake.

No journey in life is exactly the same as anyone else's either. No journey of entrepreneurship is exactly the same as someone else's. This is your own journey. This is unique to you. Your journey through entrepreneurship is just your special place.

No one had the background that you had. No one had the challenges or opportunities that you had. No one has the combination of all of that stuff plus this is where I want to go with my business. You're unique. You're different. Everyone's story of entrepreneurship is different. We all go along this path and it's unique and distinct.

So, just remember that as we go through some of these questions. Your journey is different than anyone else's Journey anywhere in the world. Cherish that. It's powerful stuff."

3 Questions

"Now, question number one. Like I said, I got three questions I think you need to ask, and I asked them of myself and I encourage my clients or whenever I do speeches I encourage them to ask these questions."

Question 1 - HOW BIG?

"Question one is, how big do you want to get? What kind of company do you want? Do you want to build a business such that it flat out changes the world and it's huge in size and it's a public company and you've got shareholders and stockholders all over the world?

Do you want that? Or are you happy with, “I just want my little piece of entrepreneurship. I want my little spot in the world.” You know, not everybody is the same and like I said earlier, all of our journeys are different. So, you may have had influences in your life that says, “look dude, if you don't build some mega-huge business, then you don't count.”

Someone else may be going through the process and they say, “hey, you know what, you do something that you love, and you have fun doing it and you make enough money to get by. You make enough money to make sure that you and your family, you're happy. That's perfect.” Each one is unique and distinct, but we gotta know. We gotta know which one it is."

Example 1 - Elon Musk

"So, I'm gonna share a couple of examples. The first one is a dude that I find quite interesting and intriguing, Elon Musk. This is a guy that his goal is to build something very large, right? He wants to change the world. And I've taken an extra interest in Mr. Musk because my daughter just started working for him. She is out in California at SpaceX, but he has these grand visions.

You take his Tesla company. His goal is, “how do I create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world's transition to electric vehicles?” That's not, “I want to build a car company,” or “I want to create something different.” It is “create the company that drives the world's transition to electric vehicles.” That's powerful stuff. That's an amazing vision statement. That's an amazing, passionate vision and you know what? He's out there to change the world, and I completely respect and honor that.

His SpaceX company—I've gone online to try and find what is the vision of SpaceX, and I've found a few different twists and turns to this thing. But one of them was “establish a city on the red planet.” So, he wants to build a million person community up on Mars. “take the first mission to Mars in 2026,” or just “to advance the future.”

But either one of these vision statements, either one of these purposes even, either one of these, whichever it is that's the driving force, he knows where he's at. And there's many other people in the world that are out there changing the world, in the world of pharmaceuticals or energy or health care or telecommunications, whatever it may be, there’s people that are starting businesses.

You may be at a point where, “yeah, I'm at the cusp of changing the world.” That's awesome! It's important to know where you're trying to go."

Example 2 - A Lifestyle Business

"On the flip side of “I want to change the world,” could be, “I want a lifestyle business. I'm not looking to change the world, I'm looking to do my thing and have some fun and just enjoy my life. I don't want the stress of building a big business. I don't want the craziness. I don't want the employees.” Perfect. But ask yourself the question and make sure that you understand the answer.

I have a friend that—I'm in Massachusetts—I have a friend that lives on Cape Cod and he has a restaurant. His restaurant is a three-month a year business, for all intents and purposes. This is all that he's striving for.

Now, when he starts off in May or June and continues through Labor Day or September, whatever it may be, his goal is—and he's told me this—look dude, I want to make a million bucks. I want to put a million bucks in my pocket. I want to do it in three months, and that's all I want to do for the rest of the year. And I respect and honor that. That's what he wants and that's his particular vision, and he's happy.

And I always say this: design your dream business that aligns with the values and goals of your dream life.

Which implies, you better understand your dream life first, because if you go and build a business and you're miserable—and I know many entrepreneurs, I've worked with them, that have this business and they’re stuck and they're shackled and they're unhappy. And yeah, maybe they're making money, but they're miserable! No! It's not the way to go."

Example 3 - The Savage Secrets

"But do you want to change the world? Do you want a lifestyle business? Or like myself, somewhere in between there?

My company The Savage Secrets—or this particular business I got a few companies—but this company, my vision is to help every entrepreneur build their dream business and simultaneously, simultaneously, have an unstoppable zest for this beautiful journey called life. It's how can I help others?

I'm at a point in my life and in my career where I get an absolute high, an absolute high, when I can help someone with a breakthrough. I can help someone take and transform their life. I can help someone ask a question that they may not have been asking. I can help someone with a piece of advice that they may not have thought about.

Why? Because I've been doing this for 30 plus years. I used to be saying I been doing this for 30 years, but now I'm in the “plus” category. So, I've been doing this, building companies, for more than 30 years and helping others build companies. So, this is my purpose. So, ask yourself how big do you want your business to be?"

Question 2 - HOW TO INVEST?

"Now, the second question is, once you have a framework, once you have an understanding of the type of business you want to build, the next question is, how do I invest in this business? How do I invest in myself? And I look at it as, it's not just investing in stuff like buildings or equipment or vehicles. It's not just investing in stuff. It's how do you invest in yourself and how do you invest in your team?

Because there is a reality: you cannot grow your business beyond the amount that you can grow yourself. You are the limiting factor.

So, if there are things that are limiting you, and that's not bad limiting, that's just factual limiting. Meaning, you're trying to take your business to a level where you've never been before, you may be facing some overwhelm. You may be facing some challenges. You may have some situations that are going on that you've never experienced before. So how do you get better? And then simultaneously, how can you help your team?

Because there is a reality. If you aspire to build a business beyond you, meaning you may be a solopreneur with no employees, that's great, but if you are one of those entrepreneurs that do have employees the only way that you can win the game is if you have a strong team. I think it's a misconception like, as long as I bust my ass and kick butt—no. You want to inspire your team.

I use this analogy all the time. Again, I am from Boston and my favorite football team is the New England Patriots. You may have heard of them. They've won several World Championships recently over the last 20 years.

But the coach of the team has never thrown a pass. He's never blocked. He's never kicked. He's never caught a pass. He's never done any of the things that his team does. His job is the leader. His job is to set a path. His job is to create direction and vision and educate, entertain, motivate, inspire his team to win.

So, your job as the entrepreneur is not just to build you, it's to build your team, and quite frankly, you can't do one and not the other. There's just no way because you constantly have to be growing. You constantly have to be striving to get to that next level, but you also need to take your team."

Investment Recommendation #1 - Get Your $@*t Together Financially

"So, I'm going to share a couple of ways, a couple of things, that I would recommend you invest in.

Because if you want to, if you are serious about taking your business to the next level, I strongly recommend you invest in these areas.

And the first one may be a little out there, or why is he going here with all this training and education stuff? Because I believe it's impossible for you to grow your business unless you are competent in the area of numbers.

There is a reality. I recommend that you get your shit together financially. Meaning, understand how to keep score. When you're building and growing a business, you have to keep score, and the way that we keep score is with numbers.

I have multiple trainings on this. I have free spreadsheets to talk about cash flow and you go to the resources page on my website if you're interested in that stuff.

But I am blown away by the number of entrepreneurs running multi-million-dollar businesses that truly do not have a sound strong handle on their business financials.

You've got to understand this stuff, because as you go to grow your business and as you go to invest in different things, you want to understand, what is my return on that investment? How is cash flowing? Cash flow are those things that I really absolutely need to understand in order to hire a team or build my team or invest in new equipment, more technology. How am I going to finance my investments? We got to understand the numbers. The numbers in your business is how we keep score.

Now, I'm not saying you got to be an accounting geek or a cash flow expert or Certified Financial Guru. No. But if you're at the helm, you gotta understand. If you're driving the ship, you need to understand all of the controls. You don't have to be great at all of them.

As you grow your business, you'll have people that sit there, and they do this for you. They will help you understand. They will collect the data and they will summarize the data and they will deliver the data to you in a form that can help you build your business. But you got to understand the financials.

You got to understand the basic fundamentals of your three financial statements: your balance sheet, your income statement, and cash flow. And I don't even look at statement of cash flow as a big—I look at cash flow projections over the next 12 to 18 months. You have to make some assumptions about your business. Who are you hiring, who you're investing in, what is your inventory need? As you go through, you really want to understand."

Investment Recommendation #2 - Feed Your Brain

"Another investment that I think is essential is you need to feed your brain. You need to feed your brain and you need to allow your team teammates to feed their brain. Whatever their aspirations are, whatever role they are in, if they are great teammates, then they aspire to get to the next level.

I often ask the question when I'm speaking, I ask about how many of you in the audience are entrepreneurs? The typical definition of entrepreneurs is someone that starts a company or runs a company or CEO of a company, whatever it may be.

But I believe everybody's an entrepreneur, because if you are part of a team, your job is to be the best product. Deliver the best service. You know who your target market is—your target market is your boss or the leaders within your organization. And striving for excellence I believe is one of those essentials. I love teammates or employees that are always striving to get better, they're always striving to get to that next level.

So I think one of the key areas to invest is in education. Training through podcasts, videos courses, events, whatever it may be. Help your team expand. Expand yourself. Expand your own philosophies. Expand your own vision. Go and explore areas where they may not be seemingly related to what you do, but you may learn something. If you're running a high-tech company, well maybe you could go to a trade show for gardening.

Now, gee, Mike that seems a little outrageous. Yeah, but you know what? When you walk down the aisle and you look at all these, it can inspire you with different ideas. I strongly recommend you try and open your horizons to all the different things.

But feed your brain as regularly as you feed your body. This thing that sits on our shoulders is so powerful and it's so wonderful when we take care of it.

And our teammates will be so grateful that you've chose chosen to invest in them. Send them to some training. Allow them to blossom and grow within your organization, and the best way to do that is you propel yourself. You grow yourself and then simultaneously you help your team."

Investment Recommendation #3 - Get a Coach or Mentor!

"The third one may seem self-serving, but I'm preaching to you what has changed my life as I've gone through the journey of building companies. I have invested in coaches. I've invested in mentors. I've invested in executive networking groups. I want to play the game at the next level.

I always say that there are two ways to learn shit in life. We can learn on our own, through our own experiences, through our own trial and error; or we can learn through the experiences of others. There's only two ways.

Now, I'm not saying that every single experience that you're gonna face building and running your company is something that you can learn from others. I actually think it's essential for you to go out and try stuff and fail. You got to because failure is the precursor to success.

Every single great leader, entrepreneur, has tried stuff and failed. They've tried and failed, but failure, in many instances, when growing your company, failure and pain can be avoided.

If you're building a business and you're running a business and you're at, say a million dollars in sales, and you've got a team of seven, and you're trying to build a business that’s five million dollars in sales and a team of twenty. If you've never built a five-million-dollar business and you've never had a team of 20, do you know how powerful it would be to learn from someone who's done that?

Because you can ask them questions!

A coach or a mentor, you can ask them questions. Like, “hey, what did you do when you faced this situation?” or “hey, how did you handle this situation?” And I'm going to also tell you, every coach, every mentor, every guide, is not created equal. They could be giving you information that potentially may not align with your moral compass. So, this is why it's challenging, but I also think it's essential.

Two ways to learn stuff: your experience or someone else's, and when it's yours, it hurts more, it costs more, and takes longer.

Now, I encourage you to go out and seek that. And you can do it through YouTube, and you can do it through Google search, and you can do it through podcasts. There's a lot of ways you can learn all of this stuff and I think a lot of it's great. But the challenge with all those platforms is that you don't have the opportunity to ask questions. In an executive leadership group or a coaching situation or a group coaching situation or a mentorship, you have the ability to ask questions. And it's beautiful.

I have three coaches in my life right now. Why do I have coaches? Because I'm in a new industry, relatively new industry. I've been playing this game for a few years and so I'm trying to like, “how else can I learn about all these next level things?” I talked to my coach. I ask questions. I look for mentors that have been there and done that. It's one of those huge essentials.

And I often hear from entrepreneurs, “oh man, it's expensive to do that. It's expensive to send my team to courses and training. It's expensive for me to take a course or my team to take a course or for me to hire a coach or a mentor. It's expensive.”

Yes. It is. Good coaches and good mentors and good training and good group masterminds, they're expensive. But you know what else is expensive? The cost of being in the exact same place as you are right now in a year. There's a cost to that. There is a cost to not being able to improve. Whether you're trying to improve your business, whether you're trying to improve from a health and fitness and wellness perspective, a nutrition perspective, whatever you're trying to improve on, a coach or training is absolutely invaluable.

I am—shocking—an incredibly passionate person as it relates to coaching. Coaches have done so much in my life. In one case he saved my life! I was going through some bad times and my coach was there and he was my sounding board and he didn't just listen. And I'm not I'm not knocking therapists or therapy, they're great. But he didn't just sit there and listen. He fired advice at me. He told me to get off the pity pot. Coaching sometimes is tough love.

When I coach my private clients or in a group situation, I don't just listen. I sometimes offer advice or recommendations. Most of the challenges that most of the entrepreneurs have is right here between the ears. It's like it gets clogged. My brain gets clogged. And we need to put in some good, clean, pure, powerful, positive inputs into our brain to get us going.

So, if you think the cost of a coach or a course or a mastermind is expensive, what's the cost of being in the exact same place one year from now? Ask yourself the question."

Question 3 - LIMITING BELIEFS?

"The third question that I think we need to constantly be asking ourselves, and I do this all the time, and I strongly recommend it is, what are those limiting beliefs that we have?

And you got to be honest with yourself. You got to write them down. What are some of the limiting beliefs that I have?

And I refer to this as head trash. It's just a bunch of trash. It's garbage that's sitting between your ears. And most of the head trash, most of the limiting beliefs that we have, are not even real! But you can't break through a limiting belief, oftentimes, with a flip of a switch. It's not like snap of your fingers and all of a sudden that limiting belief it goes. It's not that simple. It often takes time. It takes time to dive into why you have that limiting belief.

And then ask yourself the most important question about that limiting belief. That is: IS IT TRUE? Is that limiting belief true? Limiting beliefs end up being the shackles to our success. Limiting beliefs hold back so many entrepreneurs. I see entrepreneurs with so much incredible opportunity, so much promise, so much drive, they could absolutely change the world, change their life, change their family's life, change other people's lives. But it’s limiting beliefs that hold them back.

And oftentimes they need a kick in the ass or a pat on the back or just encouragement. Or at least questioning, why do you have that limiting belief? Because it can eat away at us.

Example 1 - "I have to be perfect."

"So, I'm going to share a few limiting beliefs that I've had in the past, my clients have, I still experience occasionally, but I've learned to break through. Oftentimes, it's the ability to break through it.

It's kind of the opposite of the New Year's resolution diet. I've had a few companies in the health and fitness and exercise arena throughout my career. The greatest day of the year is January 2^nd. I used to love January 2^nd. January 2nd was great because everybody's on that path of “I'm going to get healthy,” “I'm going to get fit,” “I'm going to get active.” And then six weeks later, it goes to nothing.

Why? I think because they tried to be perfect. I have to be perfect. I have to go every single day. I have to work out for an hour a day. I have to eat tofu and broccoli every day. And then their pattern gets broken for one reason or the other. All of a sudden, you miss a couple days, you miss a couple workouts, you go and have some pizza and some beer, and all of a sudden, like, “oh man, I screwed up.” So then you stop.

Screw being perfect! I have this in one of my other trainings and whether this is appropriate or not, I am going to be me. But it's five words that can change all of the things that are that are going on as it relates to perfect. I'm going to share those five words at the end of this section, but the limiting beliefs that we have can hold us back.

You do not have to be perfect. Screw being perfect! Just go out and try stuff.

Do it, fail, get up. Fail, get up. Take a step, fall back down. Take another step, fall back.

But as you climb the ladder, it can go up one step and fall down one. Then eventually you're gonna go up two or three steps and fall down one. And then you're gonna go up five steps and fall one. So, it’s constant progress. Forget about perfect! Progress. Progress is fun. You know, you get to accomplish stuff. Get to that next level.

Example 2 - "I should be farther along."

"Another one is, you know what, it happens to all of us, every single one of us entrepreneurs. Like, “I should be further along.” “Well, I've been running my business for so long, I should be further along. I should be making more money. I should have more time. I should be having more fun. I should have more employees. I should have more customers. I should be able to build my product portfolio. I should have more services. I should be further along.”

No! You shouldn't be further along. You are wherever you are. You can think about the life of a butterfly. Where are you in that path? Are you a caterpillar? Are you a cocoon? Are you a newly formed butterfly? Are you a full-blown, flying all over the place, sucking nectar from flowers, butterfly? Where are you?

But wherever you are, accept it. Own it. Be happy with it. Be confident.

• Be appreciative of where you are.
• Be appreciative that there are things that are going to come into your life.
• Be optimistic that that next step is available to you.
• Be excited and enthusiastic that where you are today is great.

But you aspire to get to somewhere else. You aspire to get to that next level and guess what? Part of the journey is doing what you're doing right now. You're listening. You're watching. You're trying to learn from others. I have made so many damn mistakes. I've lost millions of dollars and you know what? My pain can be your gain. I've also coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and I've spoken with thousands, tens of thousands, of entrepreneurs. It's fascinating when you learn the journey and you understand the path at which you're at.

Wherever you are right now, accept it. Be grateful and say, “Okay. I know where I am. I'm in the infant stages.” Or potentially dying right now. And if you are, and you're still tuned in and you're dialed in and you're watching and you're optimistic and you're enthusiastic, congratulations!

Because you can figure it out. That's one of those things that it stuck with me forever. Whatever challenge that I'm going through, I'll figure it out. Now, I can promise you I was not always there. I learned that one from a coach and I can tell that story a little bit later, but I think that our ability to accept where we are right now in the entrepreneurial journey, in the journey of life for that matter, it doesn't have to be just the entrepreneurial journey, accept where we are, be grateful that we got here, however we got here, and now it's like okay I want to put the pedal to the metal. I want to get to the next level.

Getting to that next level oftentimes requires fixing stuff from the neck up. You know, “a checkup from the neck up” my old buddy, Zig Ziglar used to say. We need to start pumping in different stuff into our brains to get ourselves to that next level, to stop these limited beliefs.

So should you be further along? No. You are where you are now. It's like okay, how do I get to that next level?"

Example 3 - "I need to be liked."

"Another limiting belief is, I thought about this a lot, it is the belief that I need to be liked. You are unique and distinct in the world. There is no one exactly like you. No one has had, as I mentioned earlier in the program today, no one's had the same exact upbringing as you.

Think about your upbringing. Think about your parents. Think about your siblings. Think about your environment that you grew up in. Did you grow up in affluence or did you grow up in poverty? No one has had the exact same situation, even if you have a sibling, even if you're twins! It's a different experience.

You're born and you have different experiences throughout the journey. So the belief, the limiting belief that I need to be liked, is crazy. So, I encourage you to embrace you. I encourage you to love and respect and honor you. You are the most unique one, and guess what? You have a belief system and your belief system most likely is not like someone else's belief system. You see things through a different lens.

If you believe in what you have to preach, if you believe in the things and the philosophies of whatever it may be to grow your business, if those beliefs and philosophies are working for you, continue to believe them. Continue.

And there are going to be people out in the world, I promise you, that will not like what you say. There are people probably sitting on the other end of this podcast or this video right now that are saying, “Savage, you have your head up your ass,” and you know what? Great. Thank you. I've gotten past the point where I care what others think. Now, I'm constantly learning. I'm constantly evaluating. There's sometimes people say stuff that creates a, “okay, well maybe I should think a little bit differently.”

But I've adopted five words, and the five words are I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit. So, five words.

When you can embrace that, there will be the naysayers out there. The people that say what you're doing is wrong. The way you're doing it is wrong. The things that you're saying are wrong. I think you're an idiot. Look, you know what? Great. We can't be liked by everybody.

There are haters out in the world. You could give someone a $50 bill for $20 and they could bitch about it because, “Oh, a fifty dollar bill, that's really hard to cash, because I need smaller bills. I need 5’s and 10’s and 1’s. Can I have can I have change for that 50?” People will bitch and complain about everything. So accept it."

A Coach Saved My Life

"So, I want to share this one last thought that a coach helped me with. And this is why I'm so passionate about coaching, because a coach at one point saved my life. I was in bad spot, a lot of bad stuff going on in my life. Business, personal, deaths and illnesses and sickness, all that stuff. And I would sit there and I would get on the phone with my coach or the Zoom call and I'd cry.

I just sit there and woe is me, and I remember clear as day. He showed me some really tough love. When I was in one of my down moments and whining and moping and complaining about the tragedies that life threw at me, I remember he told me, the two words, two words that stick with me to this day.

He said, “Get up!” I'm sitting on my couch, I'm crying, I'm going through all that, he said, “GET UP! Get up and repeat after me.” It was a series of mantras, a series of self-talk, it was series of things that helped me get to that next level. And it really it pulled me out of my doldrums. But a coach can do that for you.

And I'm not sitting here professing to come to the Savage Secrets or the Savage Secrets Academy, I'm saying be open-minded to the fact that a coach or a mentor could be the key to helping you get to that next level.

Now, I'm blessed to have had many clients that I've been able to take along the journey and help them through the roadblocks and the curveballs and the inevitable bombs that get dropped on the journey of building a company.

There's a lot of overwhelm, but I'm telling you right now, don't worry about being liked. Don't worry. It's relieving. It's like taking a shower. It's like cleansing. When you get to the point where I don't give a shit, it's freeing. So, I hope that you can take that and at least think through it a little bit. I'm not saying adopt my philosophies, but think through it a little bit."

Recap & Final Thoughts

"So, I'm going to finish with this. It’s three questions that I strongly encourage you to ask. First is, how big do you want to be? What kind of business? What's the vision that you want to have? Because as you set your goals as to where you want to go next year and the year after, and I have a whole course on setting goals, but if you figure out where you want to be, that's half the battle. Because if you want to go out there and build this massive business and change the world, you better find the skills and the people and the team that you can surround yourself with. If you want to be a solopreneur and you're happy and like great just know where you want to be.

Number two, how do you invest? How do you invest not just in yourself, but in your team? Because there is an undeniable fact that it's very difficult, if not impossible, to win the game of business and not have a great team. Your team is essential. Every player on your team, whether they are employees, whether subcontractors, every player on your team makes a difference.

And number three, limiting beliefs. They can crush us. Limiting beliefs are head trash. Limiting beliefs are those things that we say to ourselves in the mirror that we shouldn't be saying. Because the limiting beliefs are shackles. They hold us back. They don't allow us to get to that next level. When we can figure out what those limiting beliefs are and then come up with reasons why those shouldn't be beliefs, those shouldn't be part of our belief system, they're just absolute positive nonsense, it's freeing. It's fun. It's super enjoyable.

So, if you are watching this on YouTube, I am beyond grateful. Please subscribe, like it and share it; and if you have any comments, please share the comments. I will respond to all of them. I enjoy the comments.

I'd love to hear your feedback and again even if it's negative it's like, “Gee, Mike, I think you really missed the point there.” Okay, I'll entertain that. I will look into that. And you know what? I'm not perfect either. I'm not and so I make mistakes and I try different things and I have different belief systems based on all the stuff that's gone into my brain up until this point. But I appreciate the feedback.

And if you're listening on a podcast, please subscribe to my podcast, whether it be Apple Podcasts or wherever your favorite podcast is, and I'd love you to give me a rating. And if you liked what I said today, I'd be honored for a five. If you didn't like what I said today, I apologize, but it is my belief system.

So, I wish you an amazing journey today and all the rest of the days. DREAM BIG! Go crush your goals. And above all, be grateful and happy for the stuff that you have in your life. Gratitude is one of those absolutely magical things, regardless of how challenging things may be, gratitude is that one thing that can help you have an absolutely stunning day. Love ya. Have a great day! See you soon."