Dan Martell - 8 Middle Class Habits That Are Keeping You Poor

00:00:00.000 What makes someone financially successful?

00:00:02.820 Why are some people so wealthy

00:00:04.800 while others literally struggle from paycheck to paycheck?

00:00:08.680 While I was writing my book,

00:00:09.880 I had to ask myself this question.

00:00:11.520 And I realized the only difference

00:00:13.000 between the rich and the poor are habits.

00:00:15.760 And I was able to distill all the bad ones

00:00:17.980 into these eight habits that are keeping you poor.

00:00:21.780 The first habit is the status chaser.

00:00:24.540 This is the person that literally lives

00:00:26.680 way above their means to impress people.

00:00:29.260 I mean, it's the folks that get out of university or get the first job and go and buy their life

00:00:34.020 on credit. You know, they get the furniture, the apartment, the BMW lease, all these things

00:00:38.620 to impress other folks. And the crazy part is they're buying things they can't afford to impress

00:00:42.760 people they don't even like. It's the Joneses that they talk crap about. That person will always 0.99

00:00:48.040 cause themselves to stay poor because they never get ahead. They're okay being in a deficit. They

00:00:53.700 got the credit card when they were 12 years old. They've learned that consumer debt is okay. It's

00:00:58.840 not that bad. I'm building my credit. Yet they don't realize that they're stuck in the rat race. 0.97

00:01:04.740 They're stuck in the hamster wheel of consumer debt that is designed to keep them poor. It's

00:01:10.860 their habits and their choices around that. Status chasing will always keep you poor. 0.59

00:01:15.960 The second habit is the staller. This is the person that has opportunities that are presented

00:01:21.480 to them on their doorstep. It's right there, but yet their lack of action, their dragging of their

00:01:27.140 feet cost them the opportunity. I talk about this in my book, but I once emailed one of my clients

00:01:32.960 in my program SaaS Academy to ask them if they wanted to be a partner, had an opportunity. It

00:01:37.520 was very exclusive for them. Their customers were literally my clients. And I emailed them and I

00:01:42.720 said, Hey, here's what I'm thinking of doing. Would you be interested in learning more? And that email

00:01:46.880 stayed in their inbox for 20 some days until they decided to reply. I had already moved on. I,

00:01:53.000 within like three days i think i sent that email to three or four people and i chose the person

00:01:57.480 moves forward and that person made hundreds of thousands of dollars working with me most people

00:02:02.360 don't realize the habit that keeps them poor is the decision to not respond out of fear out of

00:02:07.960 concern what if i'm not good enough well i don't have my ducks in a row i gotta get everything

00:02:12.040 ready and the delay is costing them their future the third habit is the speed demon this is the

00:02:18.600 the person that moves way too quick, way too fast under the assumption that they've got to be quick

00:02:24.440 to take action and quick to make decisions. And it's almost like the opposite. I had a CEO once,

00:02:29.600 the name was Charles, and he was the CEO of a company that I'd acquired. And it was funny to

00:02:33.680 watch him execute because he needed a CMO. So he hired his cousin. His cousin came in, didn't do

00:02:39.200 the work, and then he fired him only to hire his other friend, Darwin. And it was fascinating to

00:02:43.740 watch. Here's Charles that actually knows better. And just because he's trying to move quickly,

00:02:48.580 he keeps hiring people just because they have a pulse, just because they could fog a mirror,

00:02:52.620 just because they were available. Instead of asking themselves, what would be true

00:02:57.080 around a great CMO? What would be true about a great hire and do the work to find that person?

00:03:02.780 Don't go slow. Be impatient with action. But at the end of the day, make the list of what would

00:03:06.940 be a great person to bring onto your team as an example and move quickly. Speed Demon can keep

00:03:12.580 you poor by that habit of just being too quick to jump the gun to saying yes. Speed demons hurt

00:03:18.200 their success because instead of going and sticking through something, they're always moving on to the

00:03:22.720 next opportunity, to the next opportunity, to the next opportunity. It's the lack of focus and going

00:03:26.660 deep, learning how to say no, being okay with FOMO. Some speed demons, they're so concerned

00:03:32.620 they're going to miss out on these opportunities that they're always saying yes, that they're

00:03:35.680 essentially saying no to their future because a no is a yes and a yes is a no. The fourth habit

00:03:40.300 is the supervisor. This is the person that hires folks and ends up doing their job for them. I mean,

00:03:46.120 when we hire people to work on our teams or bring people into our lives, it's because we need to buy

00:03:50.660 back our time. We need to get more space. I remember I had a friend of mine, Daryl, he owned

00:03:54.340 a bike shop and I love Daryl and I wanted to see him succeed. But I'll tell you, every time I bought

00:03:59.320 a bike from him, I brought my stuff in to get tuned up. It was always delayed. There was always

00:04:03.860 issues. And he had the belief that he had to meet me at the front door, shake my hand, acknowledge

00:04:09.260 me because that's what made me decide to buy from Daryl's bike shop. Here's the deal. I cared more

00:04:14.560 that my bike got delivered on time, that the work got done on time, than if Daryl met me at the door.

00:04:20.820 The supervisor believes that they are special because of their supervision. I actually think

00:04:25.440 it's more harmful than helpful. What we all wanted was Daryl to go in his office and run his company

00:04:31.680 so that our work got done on time. Most people don't realize when you're overly supervising people,

00:04:36.620 you're essentially telling them that you don't trust them.

00:04:39.160 You're doing their work.

00:04:40.200 So what do you do?

00:04:40.900 You teach people how to treat you.

00:04:42.820 So if you're jumping into your support email,

00:04:44.700 if you're jumping in to respond to things for people,

00:04:46.740 if you're taking over

00:04:47.620 because somebody's out at the bathroom break,

00:04:49.440 you're telling them that if they do that in the future,

00:04:51.620 you'll do that.

00:04:52.500 So indirectly, you're gonna get to a place

00:04:54.280 where you're not getting any more time back.

00:04:56.080 You're not empowering anybody

00:04:57.120 because you're teaching them how to treat you

00:04:59.100 by always showing up and taking care of things

00:05:01.400 when they're not around.

00:05:02.520 The fifth habit is the subscriber.

00:05:04.260 this is somebody that is always buying that next thing they get off by the dopamine hit of a

00:05:09.780 subscription hey i need to watch the football game boom got a subscription i need a new tool

00:05:14.580 boom got a new subscription it's the same person that goes on these like self-help journeys where

00:05:19.300 they go to seminars and they buy courses and books and i literally i call them shelf help

00:05:24.100 because all they do is they acquire these things they collect them they put them on the shelf and

00:05:28.180 they never investigate what they could do actually to improve their lives they're always trying to

00:05:33.540 buy their way to happiness and in doing so they are death by a thousand subscriptions think about

00:05:39.300 it 51 of americans say they have unwanted subscriptions the biggest way we can overcome

00:05:43.780 that is by clearing out all the payments that we're getting bought so the subscriber is the

00:05:48.500 person that is buried you know by expenses they don't even realize they creep up through the

00:05:52.740 eight dollar subscription here the four dollar subscription there the twenty dollar subscription

00:05:56.660 there and they think well i need these things for my life to work you got to make a list of them

00:06:00.820 clean them up get them out stop being the person that keeps running to buying stuff

00:06:05.460 to thinking that that next thing is going to be the savior to your life i think most people don't

00:06:09.700 realize that in purchasing things the subscription you don't realize that there is anxiety of just

00:06:14.580 having objects most people create a lot of pain in their lives trying to move things around their

00:06:20.260 life my dad when i was younger he literally had these bins where he collected stuff and i watched

00:06:25.540 him several times a year move pins from one shed to another shed from the basement to the the attic

00:06:32.660 like he could not throw stuff away he could not cancel a subscription because he felt like he

00:06:38.580 would miss out on something but he spent more time and more frustration just managing and packaging

00:06:43.460 and moving these bins than of ever using and getting value from the things inside the bin

00:06:48.420 the sixth habit is the saver and it's the opposite of the subscriber because the subscribers always

00:06:53.140 buying stuff to try to fix problems in their business but not ever having the time to actually

00:06:56.900 use the thing they're buying the saver refuses to spend money to fix core problems unless they can

00:07:02.180 100 correlate a 10x roi see the reason why rich get richer is because they look for opportunities

00:07:08.500 to invest poor people stay poor because they look for things to buy oftentimes the saver doesn't

00:07:13.540 realize that their desire to save money is essentially creating a habit where they're

00:07:17.940 making decisions to not spend money so they're not investing in themselves or their business

00:07:22.820 to grow. I remember one time I had a buddy reach out because he had heard that we built one of the

00:07:26.780 most successful coaching organizations in the world and wanted to know, how do we do it? At

00:07:31.760 the time, I think they were doing about 2 million in revenue. They had a mastermind and he was going

00:07:35.300 to shut it down because he couldn't figure out a way to do it where it was fun. So I recommended

00:07:39.560 a person. This is the guy that I hired that taught me the framework to show me how to do this. And I

00:07:44.420 talk about it in my book because I thought it was crazy because I said, Hey, here's the guy. Do you

00:07:48.540 want an intro? And he asked me, well, how much does he cost? I don't know. Honestly, I don't

00:07:52.540 remember. I know it wasn't that much because it wasn't that jarring, but you have a 2 million a

00:07:56.080 year business and this is the guy that's got the answer. Just hire him. He's like, well, is it like

00:08:00.340 5K or 10K? I said, it's probably around like a 10K thing, but it will solve your problem. It'll

00:08:06.340 never be an issue. And his response was, does he have a book? I don't know if he has a book,

00:08:11.160 but a $20 book is not your answer. You need to invest in the solution so that you don't shut

00:08:16.780 down this thing that was probably doing 600,000 a year in profit for him. He was literally going

00:08:21.340 to shut down a $2 million a year business, 600,000 in profit because he wasn't willing to spend

00:08:26.960 $10,000. The saver doesn't realize that those decisions are the things that are keeping them

00:08:32.320 from growing and not being poor. The seventh habit is the self-medicator. And I got to be

00:08:37.180 honest, this story I'm about to share with you, I'm ashamed of. Back in the day, it was 2005,

00:08:42.300 I was doing some work for Yale University and back then I was a drinker. You know anytime I wanted to

00:08:48.660 celebrate or let loose I would go and I'd have some drinks and while I was working on site I

00:08:53.680 decided to go have this beautiful meal at a sushi restaurant. You know I'm consulting I've got an

00:08:58.780 expense account and I go and I enjoy myself to the nth degree. You know sake bomb things start

00:09:05.440 flowing I make some friends all of a sudden we go right till the restaurant shuts down. The next

00:09:10.160 morning I was so hung over I was so sick that I called in and I said that I got food poisoning

00:09:16.340 now everybody knew because I was telling everybody the day before that I was going to this sushi

00:09:20.460 place and unfortunately everybody thought that restaurant made me sick and the truth was is

00:09:25.900 I was hung over I was still drunk you know I've been sober now for almost 13 years but I share

00:09:31.460 that story to let people know that oftentimes the thing that's holding us back is our vices right

00:09:36.380 It's the drinking, it's the screen time,

00:09:38.420 it's the food, it's the news.

00:09:40.100 They're addictions that compromise our time

00:09:42.800 and get us focused on negativity.

00:09:44.600 See, a lot of people ask me,

00:09:45.980 Dan, what have you done to become successful?

00:09:48.260 And what I often tell them, it's what I don't do.

00:09:50.620 I don't go to buffets, I don't drink, I don't do drugs,

00:09:54.120 I don't gamble, I don't watch porn,

00:09:55.940 I don't do all these things that I consider vices

00:09:58.320 holding you back from becoming the best version of yourself.

00:10:01.520 A vice will stop you from winning

00:10:03.280 because it's gonna dull your senses.

00:10:05.260 It's gonna pull you back from being in the moment.

00:10:08.120 It's gonna stop you from having these creative moments

00:10:10.560 where you go on a walk or a run or after you go to the gym

00:10:13.060 and you have these ideas for expansion.

00:10:16.080 And the other thing is that you know

00:10:17.500 you shouldn't be doing these.

00:10:18.480 So what happens, you slowly chip away at your confidence.

00:10:21.120 See, confidence is built by keeping commitments

00:10:23.140 that you make to yourself in private.

00:10:24.980 And if you know you got a drinking problem

00:10:26.700 and you can't keep it under control,

00:10:28.500 it's gonna be really tough for you

00:10:30.000 to build that self-confidence, build that courage

00:10:32.400 to make those big moves to grow your future.

00:10:34.460 The eighth habit is the swindler.

00:10:37.100 This is the person that, you know,

00:10:39.240 they're kind of the shyster.

00:10:40.480 You may know people like this in your life

00:10:42.460 where you just don't trust them.

00:10:44.420 They're always looking for an edge.

00:10:45.880 They're always taking advantage of people.

00:10:47.760 If you're participating in nefarious activities,

00:10:50.300 you're setting yourself up for failure.

00:10:52.280 Here's an example.

00:10:52.980 I had a friend once and he sold a couch for his roommate.

00:10:55.700 After the deal was done,

00:10:56.780 he decided to pocket 30% and give his roommate the rest of it.

00:10:59.660 Now, he didn't ask for that.

00:11:01.040 He didn't negotiate that up front.

00:11:02.420 He just decided to keep it.

00:11:03.400 No big deal from him.

00:11:04.460 He's like, hey, I did this work

00:11:05.580 and I just kept this money.

00:11:06.600 It's the essence of who you are.

00:11:09.080 I mean, it sounds subtle, but for example,

00:11:10.820 I have friends that choose to continually park in spots.

00:11:14.200 They know they're gonna get a ticket

00:11:15.460 and get the ticket and just say,

00:11:16.960 I'm never gonna pay this.

00:11:17.900 See, it's the energy.

00:11:19.280 If you think about what a swindler mentality is,

00:11:22.400 you're bringing negativity into your life.

00:11:24.620 You're taking advantage of other people.

00:11:26.360 And what happens is you then get taken advantage of

00:11:29.060 from a time point of view,

00:11:30.240 that takes up a lot of head space

00:11:31.900 where you're always dealing and worrying.

00:11:33.420 and essentially the energy you put out to the world

00:11:35.600 comes back at you, right?

00:11:36.840 The frequency that you have

00:11:38.420 is what you will frequently see in other situations.

00:11:41.300 So people that act like swindlers

00:11:43.540 essentially see swindles in everything they do

00:11:46.320 and it makes them move slow.

00:11:48.020 I was in Miami the other day

00:11:49.320 and I ran into a new person that I'd known of,

00:11:52.680 but I had already heard from other people

00:11:54.340 that he had a checkered past

00:11:56.520 and wasn't a good person to deal with.

00:11:58.400 And even though in the moment I met them,

00:12:00.280 they were super kind and cordial,

00:12:01.680 I immediately, once he gave me his cell number,

00:12:03.980 I never entered it in my phone.

00:12:06.040 I didn't follow up.

00:12:07.360 I trust the feedback that other people give to me

00:12:10.180 and swindlers have no place in my life.

00:12:13.140 If you have a bad reputation, it's hard to do business.

00:12:15.960 The problem is, is you'll never know.

00:12:17.440 So your reputation is what people say

00:12:19.740 when you're not around.

00:12:20.820 And if they're saying, hey man,

00:12:22.060 there's something odd about this guy. 1.00

00:12:23.540 He's a little crookoo, he's a little crazy. 1.00

00:12:25.360 He's a little, I don't know, a little shady. 0.99

00:12:27.620 You're Shady McShade, sir.

00:12:28.780 Don't be upset if nobody invites you to the good deals

00:12:31.000 because they just don't trust you at the end of the day you want to have a good reputation

00:12:34.600 for being the kind of person that does what they say they're going to do and is always above board

00:12:38.840 if you're somebody who does shady things or you know people the world we live in today it's very

00:12:44.280 easy to back channel so if i'm interacting with somebody on social media and i see who follows

00:12:48.200 them i'm just going to message them and say hey do you know this person and at the end of the day

00:12:51.560 i usually ask hey what do you think of this person feel free to call me if need be and if they go hey

00:12:56.120 let's set up a call. I just reply and say, enough said. I can read into it what I want. We don't

00:13:01.420 need a phone call and I keep my space. People that do shady things have no idea how much it hurts

00:13:06.960 them because they never hear about it, but it's always going on. Those are the eight habits that

00:13:12.080 are keeping you poor. And if you want to learn the only four skills you need to build a billion

00:13:16.580 dollar company, click the link and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - March 15, 2024

8 Middle Class Habits That Are Keeping You Poor

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