Dan Martell - How to Reinvent Yourself and Level Up Your Life in 2026

00:00:00.000 Do you ever feel like you're stuck in a loop?

00:00:02.180 Live in a life that doesn't feel like you?

00:00:04.360 Like something has to change?

00:00:06.200 I'm gonna share with you seven simple steps

00:00:08.200 to rebrand your life, because I used to be there.

00:00:10.940 I've reinvented myself multiple times.

00:00:13.520 Rehab at 17, going from broke to millionaire at 27,

00:00:17.180 and from introverted tech nerd to extroverted CEO.

00:00:20.340 But here's the thing, real transformation

00:00:22.180 isn't about isolating yourself and changing who you are.

00:00:25.980 It starts by shifting who you believe you are.

00:00:28.600 And if you follow these seven steps,

00:00:30.540 you will have to reintroduce yourself

00:00:32.520 because your friends and family won't recognize you.

00:00:34.900 So if you're ready to go all in,

00:00:36.500 these are the seven steps to rebrand your life.

00:00:38.520 Starting with step number one,

00:00:40.300 rewrite your negative and limiting beliefs.

00:00:42.920 Limiting beliefs about you and your capability

00:00:45.640 and your skillset and your mindset and your IQ

00:00:48.320 and how smart you are, that's the limit side.

00:00:50.940 And the other side is negative, about being successful,

00:00:54.040 about being the person that finally makes money.

00:00:56.080 You might be the first person in your family,

00:00:57.540 or maybe you wanna buy a supercar

00:00:59.020 or maybe you wanna just be happy

00:01:00.660 but for whatever reason you have a negative belief

00:01:02.540 about people that are like that.

00:01:04.100 An example is like believing that people that are fit

00:01:07.080 don't have any fun.

00:01:08.080 Why would you wanna go and get in the best shape of your life

00:01:10.580 if you believe people that look like that have no fun? 0.99

00:01:13.180 I look like that, I have a ton of fun

00:01:15.220 or that rich people are evil

00:01:16.940 and that anybody that's made any money

00:01:18.680 took advantage of somebody else.

00:01:20.060 If you're a good hearted person

00:01:21.600 then of course you don't wanna run to go get rich

00:01:23.880 because you're always gonna be self-sabotaging yourself

00:01:26.240 because you believe that rich people

00:01:27.900 have taken advantage of other people.

00:01:29.640 I used to think that I'd see a person in a really fancy car

00:01:32.520 and my dad used to say, that guy's in the mafia.

00:01:34.900 Doesn't know him, doesn't have any proof,

00:01:36.600 but because he always said it,

00:01:37.780 I always assumed if somebody was driving a nice car,

00:01:40.000 they gotta be in the mob.

00:01:41.020 What's crazy about having these beliefs,

00:01:43.020 it's kind of like climbing a ladder

00:01:45.020 with a 250 pound backpack filled with rocks.

00:01:49.140 It makes life so much harder.

00:01:51.200 And if you don't believe that you deserve more,

00:01:53.400 you don't believe you can become more,

00:01:54.840 you have negative beliefs about being successful

00:01:56.960 or limiting beliefs about what you can do,

00:01:58.960 it's hard to win.

00:02:00.200 And what I've learned is you'll never get a penny more

00:02:02.760 than you think you deserve.

00:02:04.740 See, people think it's about what you have

00:02:06.440 in your environment.

00:02:07.320 It's not.

00:02:07.960 It's your mindset.

00:02:09.080 It's what you believe you deserve.

00:02:11.480 If you don't believe you deserve something,

00:02:13.920 you'll work really hard to get rid of it.

00:02:15.720 I see it happen over and over again.

00:02:17.780 Here's how you bust those beliefs.

00:02:19.660 Number one, is it really true?

00:02:21.440 Is it really true that people that are incredibly healthy

00:02:24.180 and look fit. Don't have any fun. Is it always true? People that are rich, are they all evil?

00:02:29.440 You thinking you're not smart. Is it really true? Have you ever learned something? Yes. Well, that

00:02:34.920 means you can learn more. You can become smarter. The second thing is where did that belief come

00:02:40.060 from? Either limiting or negative belief. Who taught it to me? When did I learn it? How old

00:02:44.860 is it? And most importantly, the third question I like to ask myself is what needs to be true for

00:02:49.780 me not to believe this? Would I need to meet somebody that is kind and gracious and giving

00:02:54.000 that is also rich? Would I need to sit down and just have a conversation with my parents and ask

00:02:59.520 them like, why did you teach me that? Or where did you learn this and see if it actually has

00:03:03.380 any substance? I remember one of my friends, Mark, had a really hard time charging what he thought

00:03:07.300 he was worth. And I said, well, what if you took 10% of everything you made and you gave it to your

00:03:11.260 church? And he lit up. And all of a sudden now he wanted to charge people more money because that

00:03:15.940 money meant he was giving to other people because for whatever reason, he thought making a lot of

00:03:19.960 money was bad. Well, what if you make making a lot of money good by not being that person just

00:03:23.880 hoards it? So the first step to rebranding your life is getting rid or rewriting these negative

00:03:29.100 or limiting beliefs, which brings us to step number two, describe your future like you're

00:03:34.000 present. When I started my first company, I read a book. It's called Good to Great. And it gave me

00:03:39.580 the framework of thinking how to have a vision, how to create. And it told me to have a BHAG,

00:03:44.640 a big, hairy, audacious goal.

00:03:46.800 And back then at 23, 24 years old,

00:03:49.400 I wrote down $5 million, five countries, 50 employees.

00:03:54.240 At the time, I might've had four or five employees

00:03:56.660 and maybe a couple hundred thousand in revenue,

00:03:59.320 but I believed it.

00:04:00.220 I put it in my pitch deck to new employees

00:04:02.440 and my onboarding and to my partners.

00:04:04.420 And I just kept telling people over and over and over again.

00:04:08.660 And what happened is because I was describing my future,

00:04:11.620 I was talking about it like it was my present,

00:04:14.060 eventually that came true and I know it can work for you. Not having clarity is like trying to put

00:04:19.160 the puzzle together without having the image on the box. And oftentimes, especially when people

00:04:23.680 are rebranding themselves, they're worried about like not knowing the steps of how to do the thing

00:04:28.280 they might have a vision around. But I believe that we want to focus on the where, the destination

00:04:33.040 and disconnect from the how because a big enough why will make the how really easy. So here's how

00:04:38.400 to get clarity on rebranding yourself. Number one is give yourself permission to dream. I can't tell

00:04:43.980 you how often people are like, I kind of have a goal. I don't really have a goal. Or am I okay

00:04:48.760 to ask for this? Yes. So you can only go as big as you allow yourself to dream. And most people

00:04:54.100 have never been given permission. So do it for yourself so that you can see what's possible.

00:05:00.000 Play with it. Call it a dream. Disconnect from having to commit to any other person that you

00:05:04.480 want to do it. But just like a coat, try it on. See how it feels. And if you get really excited

00:05:08.760 about it, use that energy to keep pushing it forward. The second is you have to shop your

00:05:13.200 dreams. If you have a desire to drive a really cool supercar or stay in really great hotels or

00:05:18.540 live in a beautiful home, I want to encourage you to get in those places. That's why I run my youth

00:05:23.580 program, King's Club, and we always do a car show after, because I want the kids to sit in these

00:05:28.640 cars, hold the steering wheel, take a picture of their hands on the steering wheel, and really get

00:05:33.420 in the energy, the smell, the feeling of getting that car. Like I was no different than them, and

00:05:38.980 here I am sharing my car with them and they can have it for themselves. I would highly encourage

00:05:43.360 you to go and shop your dreams. And the third step is to visualize your dream. Get really clear

00:05:49.660 visually around your goals and your dreams so that you can see it. So your mind doesn't think

00:05:54.660 in words. It doesn't think in conversations. It literally sees the world through pictures.

00:05:59.400 And what you have as a picture that you visualize will act like a heat-seeking missile to go

00:06:04.620 accomplish it. You'll have people show up in your life that'll introduce you to opportunities that

00:06:08.460 It'll bring you closer to your dreams.

00:06:10.180 And you'll be like, how'd that person show up in my life?

00:06:11.920 It's not that they just magically showed up.

00:06:14.000 It's because you were paying attention

00:06:15.540 because you were always resetting your focus.

00:06:17.820 What you focus on will grow.

00:06:19.620 And that's why I tell people to have this thing

00:06:21.920 called the rule of 300.

00:06:23.420 It's 100% clarity, 100% belief, 100% of time.

00:06:27.380 To the degree that you can have clarity around your dreams

00:06:29.860 and believe it's possible

00:06:31.100 is the speed it will come into your life.

00:06:33.500 Which brings us to step number three, shift your identity.

00:06:36.700 This one's a tough one for a lot of people,

00:06:38.640 but I personally learned that I will never outperform

00:06:41.740 the way I see myself.

00:06:43.260 I don't believe that I have the beingness

00:06:45.560 of a person that's successful.

00:06:47.200 Then I will always try to find ways to push it away

00:06:50.280 because I don't feel like I deserve it.

00:06:51.880 See, most people think once I have the cool job,

00:06:54.120 I'm the entrepreneur, I have the nice car,

00:06:56.380 then I get to do the stuff and then I'll be that person.

00:06:59.140 I will be successful.

00:07:00.620 The crazy part is you gotta flip it.

00:07:02.660 You have to flip it to I will be the person

00:07:05.200 who acts that way that's in the energy of abundance that is always being helpful that is

00:07:09.540 considered successful even if i have no evidence or proof and that will give me opportunities to

00:07:14.280 do the activities that i want to do that i want to be like then get to have the stuff that comes

00:07:19.680 with being that way see most people think it's about doing it's actually more about being the

00:07:24.360 reason why that works is because you don't create success you attract success by becoming an

00:07:29.260 attractive person other people want to see you win think about i've got mr grumpy face here and i

00:07:34.680 got Mr. Happy Face there. If you were going to help one of these two people, which one would

00:07:38.900 you pick? Probably Happy Face. It's that simple yet that powerful. Your reality and your world

00:07:44.840 is the byproduct of your most dominant thoughts, actions, and beliefs. If you believe that you

00:07:50.600 are that person, that beingness, then you will have that reality and that experience. And the

00:07:55.220 cool part is that even if you have no money, you can feel this way. It's kind of funny because I

00:07:59.380 learned that when we write things down, it helps ingrain it. And for years I wrote down, I'm an

00:08:04.120 Ironman and I didn't even know how to swim. And eventually I ended up doing my first half Ironman

00:08:08.440 and then eventually full Ironman. And since then I've done about six Ironmans. And right now I've

00:08:12.660 been writing down, I am a billionaire. I'm building a new company called Martel Ventures. It's an AI

00:08:17.060 venture studio where we help incubate new software ideas. And that is the path to becoming a

00:08:22.300 billionaire. The whole point is getting comfortable with the label billionaire, Ironman, successful or

00:08:28.020 rich. I have friends that cannot say I'm rich. They just like are allergic to it. Just feels

00:08:32.880 weird saying that. I'm like, dude, you're worth like 50 million. You're rich. Why can't you say

00:08:37.460 that? It's just facts. Get okay working on your identity. The best way to lock this in is to ask

00:08:43.820 yourself, who do I need to become to achieve this goal? Who do I need to be? How do I need to act

00:08:49.240 to achieve my vision? What kind of person easily attracts and creates that kind of future? That's

00:08:54.680 the question. That's why the third step of rebranding your life is identity because you

00:08:59.200 have to believe that that new life is who you are before you have any proof that exists around you

00:09:04.100 which brings us to step number four get obsessed with the process i remember reading this once if

00:09:09.540 you're not obsessed you're just interested and interested people watch obsessed people change

00:09:15.140 the whole world you have people like mr beast elon musk steve jobs the one thing that they all have

00:09:21.620 in common is they were relentlessly obsessed on achieving they decided i want to redesign my life

00:09:27.800 I wanna become better

00:09:28.780 and I will become obsessed with achieving it.

00:09:31.240 Oftentimes when I'm giving talks,

00:09:32.920 I have these young men that raise their hand

00:09:34.580 and ask me questions like, I wanna be successful.

00:09:37.420 You need to absolutely go all in.

00:09:41.260 If you wanna be really obsessed,

00:09:42.980 this is what I've learned from my multi-millionaire mentors

00:09:45.680 is number one, you have to bathe in a topic.

00:09:48.140 I'm talking editing your social media feed,

00:09:50.300 curating your book list,

00:09:51.540 the conversations you have with people.

00:09:53.500 It's kind of like standing at the bottom of a waterfall

00:09:55.980 and just having everything be about the obsession

00:09:59.840 of the accomplishment you wanna go after.

00:10:01.540 If it's AI, if it's drop shipping,

00:10:03.480 if it's being successful, you have to bathe in it.

00:10:06.580 The other thing is you have to learn to say no

00:10:08.140 because the more you move forward,

00:10:09.760 the more people are gonna try to distract you.

00:10:11.360 And if you don't understand what you're going for,

00:10:12.820 you have to say no.

00:10:13.620 You have to say no to the old version of you

00:10:15.880 to rebrand the new version of you.

00:10:17.880 You have to be relentlessly focused.

00:10:20.520 Follow one course until successful, until it comes true.

00:10:24.000 You gotta put it in your calendar.

00:10:25.140 You have to put it there ahead of everything else

00:10:27.640 you really wanna do

00:10:28.640 because you're obsessed with accomplishment.

00:10:30.960 And you gotta be willing to go long periods of time

00:10:33.700 being misunderstood.

00:10:34.780 Because when you're rebranding yourself

00:10:36.460 and people know you as this type of person

00:10:38.620 and being good at these things

00:10:40.380 and you're going to create a whole new identity,

00:10:42.820 people misunderstand you throughout the journey.

00:10:45.300 The good news, it lasts about six months

00:10:47.560 of you being consistent and showing up

00:10:50.000 and telling everybody what you're up to.

00:10:51.460 Eventually the new brand,

00:10:53.040 the new version of you is what they expect,

00:10:54.860 Which brings us to step number five, create your resource plan.

00:10:58.240 It's kind of interesting because a while ago I had this crazy idea of getting visible abs.

00:11:02.360 Somebody told me there was more people that were millionaires than people with visible abs.

00:11:05.460 So I decided in my 40s to go all in.

00:11:07.880 At first I did well and then I didn't and I plateaued.

00:11:11.240 And all of a sudden I was freaking out because I set a goal and I was worried I was going to fail because I didn't have a plan.

00:11:16.220 That transition from flubby Dan to absolutely shredded, ripped and bicep vein Dan needed a plan.

00:11:22.620 so i got a coach i got a gym membership i worked with my meal prep i worked on my diet i changed my

00:11:28.060 whole environment i have a whole fridge here that's called martel macros that has all my meal

00:11:32.580 prep i went all in with the plan most people will tell me dan that must be nice but i don't have

00:11:38.120 money or i don't have a friend group or i don't have people to work out with see most people don't

00:11:41.920 lack resources they lack resourcefulness they get into this poor me mentality they immediately shut

00:11:48.380 down the potential of finding a solution because they think well i can't i don't have the thing

00:11:53.340 i've got a really cool car and if i offered you to buy this car for 50 bucks you'd go find the 50

00:11:58.300 bucks if you didn't have it if i told you go find a new group of friends to support you in your gym

00:12:02.060 you would go find that new group of friends you would be resourceful especially when you're

00:12:06.220 rebranding yourself you need to list all the resources you need to achieve your vision some

00:12:10.620 of the questions i like to ask who do you need around you the people the environment what are

00:12:14.620 are the tools that will help? What are the devices to help you? What are the books, courses, or

00:12:19.040 podcasts that you need to read and consume and study to build the plan? And where do you need

00:12:23.640 to spend more time? Where do you need to start saying no to and saying yes to other areas so

00:12:27.620 that you set up your environment to win? My philosophy is you want to spend more time with

00:12:32.960 people chasing a common future instead of people with a common past, which brings us to step number

00:12:38.980 six, upgrade your language. The other day I was hosting this event called the Social Selling Summit

00:12:43.860 and a woman asked a question and I said,

00:12:46.200 well, what's your goal?

00:12:46.760 And she said, I'd like to maybe like 2 million in 12 months.

00:12:49.760 Is that realistic?

00:12:50.800 Let's talk about the question mark on confidence

00:12:53.800 or certainty around hitting that goal.

00:12:55.720 Your words will create your future.

00:12:58.060 Essentially, you become your conversation.

00:13:00.580 If you're not using language that is certain,

00:13:03.820 that is act as if, as if it already happened,

00:13:06.760 instead is like questioning, doubtful, fear-based,

00:13:09.940 then you're telling the world that you really don't want it.

00:13:13.620 So when you're rebranding yourself,

00:13:15.140 it requires you to be very diligent with your language.

00:13:18.660 Some people's language literally has the expectation

00:13:22.220 of failure built into it.

00:13:23.980 Using should, could, want to.

00:13:26.160 These are all things that communicate

00:13:28.000 that you're not even sure you're gonna win.

00:13:30.360 See, if people stop saying most people

00:13:32.720 and started saying I used to,

00:13:34.840 then it would be more impactful

00:13:36.060 because then they have commitment around who they used to be,

00:13:39.180 the new person they're trying to create,

00:13:40.660 the transition of rebranding themselves

00:13:42.560 by saying not most people do this as I used to do this and I don't do it anymore. The new version

00:13:47.660 of it does it this way and you will live into that. And my favorite is the power of yet. A lot

00:13:53.980 of people make the mistake of saying I'm not rich, but what they're missing is the comma yet. I don't

00:14:00.060 have a big team, comma yet. I'm not successful, comma yet. The comma yet reinforces the certainty.

00:14:07.400 it tells you to go find solutions to your problems my kids taught me this my son noah came home one

00:14:12.760 day from school and i said something he said yet i said what do you mean he goes at school they

00:14:16.720 taught us the power of the comma yet and i'm like dude that's so good because when it comes to

00:14:21.400 language facts are you might not be rich today add the comma yet and that's why it's essential

00:14:27.240 to change your language even the conversation you have inside your head when you're rebranding

00:14:31.780 yourself which brings us to step number seven say goodbye to the old version of you the fun part is

00:14:37.220 reinvention isn't about abandoning who you are it's about upgrading think of it like software

00:14:43.420 programs you build new code you don't delete all of your code you just fix the bugs the point is

00:14:49.020 to become more of who you are the best parts of you and less of the areas that cause you issues

00:14:54.000 doing that is going to have other people thinking who do you think you are and saying things that

00:14:59.340 are going to hurt your feelings i'm not responsible for those people's stories i think we have to

00:15:03.920 learn to normalize leaving people in the reality they've chosen and on that when you see people

00:15:09.260 you haven't seen in a while don't let them speak your past over you it's kind of like i used to go

00:15:14.340 out east where i grew up and i would see people and they'd be like hey remember when you were

00:15:18.460 doing this and doing this and doing this is like that's not who i am anymore i don't let people

00:15:22.880 speak my past onto me and talk about how i was because that's not who i am funny enough when i

00:15:28.200 see people as a joke i usually say hey i'm damn martell let me reintroduce myself because i've

00:15:32.940 going through so much growth and change and trying to evolve as a person that the person they knew

00:15:37.900 fundamentally isn't the same version and when we do that we burn the boats we make it so that

00:15:43.340 there's no going back when i decide to get in the best shape of my life that is the new version of

00:15:48.620 me and if i used to hang out with you and go out for wings and drink a bunch of beer and now i

00:15:52.380 don't drink anymore i don't need to hear those stories about a person that i am no longer when

00:15:56.540 you rebrand yourself you have to let the old person die and it can go even further for example 0.99

00:16:01.660 If you got in shape and your clothes is baggy,

00:16:04.660 you need to throw out your old clothes.

00:16:06.200 The other day I was at an event

00:16:07.260 and somebody introduced themselves

00:16:08.380 and showed me their belt buckle

00:16:09.500 because I always talk about belt buckles and bank accounts.

00:16:11.680 And they were on the last hole.

00:16:13.120 And I said, okay, now we do this.

00:16:15.360 Give me your belt. 0.90

00:16:15.940 He's like, why?

00:16:16.580 I said, give me the belt.

00:16:17.300 Take it off.

00:16:17.740 Are your pants going to fall?

00:16:18.700 He goes, no.

00:16:19.280 I said, well, give me your belt.

00:16:20.100 And I took his belt.

00:16:20.820 I said, I will buy you a new belt.

00:16:22.260 This belt is dead.

00:16:23.560 You need to go find one that fits you.

00:16:25.080 Most people keep their big clothes around just in case.

00:16:28.620 No, donate it.

00:16:30.000 Go buy new stuff.

00:16:30.940 If you all of a sudden came into money, go close your line of credit.

00:16:34.380 You don't need it anymore.

00:16:35.980 Decide to burn the boats.

00:16:37.640 Make a commitment to the new you, that mindset and identity.

00:16:41.860 If you do those things, it will stick.

00:16:44.120 I understand rebranding and reinventing yourself sounds scary,

00:16:47.780 but it's also exciting at the same time.

00:16:49.880 And the thing I really want you to consider is that most people think you can live for others

00:16:54.540 or you can live for yourself.

00:16:55.880 But living for yourself means you can be more for others.

00:17:00.940 You just have to keep on going.

00:17:02.460 Now, if you wanna go deep on the rule of 300

00:17:04.820 and how it'll save you 15 years of your life,

00:17:07.320 click here and I'll see you on the other side.

Dan Martell - May 16, 2025

How to Reinvent Yourself and Level Up Your Life in 2026

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript