Dan Martell - I’m 45. If you're in your 20s, 30s or 40s, watch this

00:00:00.000 Most people think getting rich gets harder as you age.

00:00:02.920 That couldn't be farther from the truth.

00:00:05.000 I became a millionaire at 27, went bigger in my 30s,

00:00:08.080 and at 45, I'm still scaling businesses

00:00:10.360 in ways I never imagined.

00:00:12.020 And look, I know what you're thinking.

00:00:13.560 Dan, I'm 23 and I'm broke.

00:00:16.000 I'm 35 and I feel super behind.

00:00:18.060 I'm 42 and I think it's just too late for me.

00:00:20.440 But here's the truth.

00:00:21.440 You're not too young, you're not too old,

00:00:23.500 and you're definitely not too far behind.

00:00:25.480 You're just playing the wrong level.

00:00:26.940 Today, I'll break down the exact playbook

00:00:28.940 for each decade, your 20s, 30s, and 40s.

00:00:32.420 And I'll show you the next level nobody talks about,

00:00:35.860 which in my opinion is the one that matters the most.

00:00:38.740 Level one, your 20s.

00:00:40.560 The main advantage that you have is your energy.

00:00:43.120 For me, your 20s is actually about one thing.

00:00:46.400 It's about trading time for money,

00:00:48.900 then trading that money for skills.

00:00:51.920 Here's how I like to think about it.

00:00:53.360 I call it building your foundation.

00:00:55.740 Step one, we pick one high value meta skill.

00:00:59.360 See, a meta skill is something

00:01:01.000 that makes other skills easier to learn or adopt.

00:01:04.360 If you think about coding,

00:01:05.620 because it teaches you like systems thinking or sales,

00:01:08.580 right, because then you're learning about persuasion

00:01:10.380 or copywriting, content creation, project management,

00:01:12.880 all of these meta skills

00:01:14.260 make you better at learning another skill.

00:01:16.740 I always find the best skill

00:01:18.260 is the one that you would love to do.

00:01:19.820 It's almost like what would you naturally do

00:01:21.940 to procrastinate?

00:01:22.900 If that's one of these meta skills, do that.

00:01:25.520 But I really want you to keep this in mind.

00:01:27.900 Do not diversify, go deep.

00:01:31.160 That intensity and focus and obsession for me, writing code,

00:01:34.880 that's what's gonna make you incredibly valuable

00:01:37.200 within the high value meta skill.

00:01:39.300 And the best part is you can use your five to nine.

00:01:42.240 It could be 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. or 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

00:01:45.760 It doesn't matter if you're working a full-time job

00:01:47.320 or you're studying, going all in for six months

00:01:50.000 is gonna make you master at this meta skill.

00:01:52.180 step two most people won't agree with me on this is work for free because your parents are going

00:01:57.720 to be like oh i don't think you should work for free for this person they don't realize that when

00:02:01.380 you start doing something you're not good at it you don't add value so if somebody that has the

00:02:07.160 background and experience is willing to give you an internship or an opportunity to learn for free

00:02:10.980 take it i did this back when i moved to san francisco i didn't know anybody i didn't have

00:02:15.940 a high school friend i just cold emailed a bunch of folks and said here are the three things i'm

00:02:20.060 good at technology writing code sales persuasion and marketing really good at marketing and it

00:02:26.920 turned out that enough of those emails eventually got responded to and two or three people gave me

00:02:31.760 a shot they didn't pay me I didn't need to get paid I showed up being willing to do the work

00:02:36.360 without getting paid because I knew it was also going to build my portfolio and that's what most

00:02:40.820 people don't think about step three is the price ladder see the mistake that most people make is

00:02:45.820 they just say, look, I'll do this for like 50 bucks when normally anybody else would charge

00:02:50.180 100. So you can just say that is normally I would charge 100 for this, but you're somebody I really

00:02:54.940 admire and I want to do work with. So I'm willing to do that at 50% off. That shows the initiative.

00:03:00.300 And then once you do that, every five clients raise your price by 25%. Even when I look at my

00:03:06.580 journey, I mean, I was 17 in rehab and I discovered a book on Java program. And what happened is I

00:03:12.500 became obsessed with writing code. In many ways, it became my new addiction. And I would stay up

00:03:16.840 till two, three in the morning, just writing code. By 21, I was charging $75 an hour for consulting,

00:03:23.420 essentially 150,000 a year. It blew my mind that people paid that, but it's because I had so many

00:03:29.540 years of experience because I had the skills in the portfolio to prove it. So here's my rule of

00:03:34.720 thumb for those in their twenties. Say yes to everything that teaches you something, even if

00:03:39.760 it doesn't pay well because you'll get paid on the back end of learning it well. And I get it.

00:03:44.380 Maybe you're on the edge and you're scared to start. You're like, I hear what you're saying,

00:03:47.660 Dan, but I don't know. What if I fail? Here's what I know. Winners lose more than losers.

00:03:52.400 So in this stage, don't be afraid to fail. Use it to fuel your growth. So now that we've tackled

00:03:57.760 how you get rich in your 20s, let's move on to our 30s. The main advantage at 30s is strategy.

00:04:03.940 You've got things that you've tried and failed. You've created some systems. All of these create

00:04:07.980 leverage as you try to get richer. So here are three things that you need to utilize in your

00:04:13.020 30s to be able to get rich. Step one, the ATF framework. ATF stands for audit, transfer, fill.

00:04:22.420 This is where we look at our time to make sure we're working on the right things. I have a guy

00:04:27.140 on my team. He works really hard, but he's not getting near the financial results as the other

00:04:32.400 people on the team. The reason why is he doesn't look at his calendar through this lens. See,

00:04:36.240 audit is about understanding where are you spending your time and is it producing revenue and is it

00:04:42.240 lighting me up things that don't make you money that you hate to do that suck your energy those 0.58

00:04:47.280 have to get off your plate then we go to transfer transfer is about taking those things and giving

00:04:52.000 them to somebody else so this could be outtasking a task from like grocery shopping to running errands 0.78

00:04:58.640 to cleaning your home those little things you can start in your 30s but it could be as advanced as

00:05:03.840 hiring a full-time virtual assistant to help you with your email and your inbox then the last part

00:05:08.160 is phil this is about once you've got that time back what do you do to reinvest it to get higher

00:05:14.320 leverage so for me it's about things like my habits my belief systems in the world or more

00:05:20.080 importantly my character traits if you're easily upset all the time because there's a little

00:05:24.560 problem that happens and guess what you'll never get big problems and if you don't have big problems

00:05:29.840 you don't have a big life so now that you've audited your time and we have a framework for

00:05:33.740 improving your time now we gotta go step two the replacement ladder this for me is looking back on

00:05:39.680 my life and saying if i'm trying to get rich and build my team what's the order of hiring that

00:05:44.960 makes me the most money for the least amount of cost that buys me back the most time so the first

00:05:51.300 hire at the bottom is an executive assistant this is somebody dedicated to understanding your needs

00:05:56.700 and your life and your rhythms

00:05:58.180 that can take over 100% of your inbox in your calendar.

00:06:02.600 If you hear this and you think to yourself,

00:06:04.500 I don't even know what I get them to do,

00:06:06.420 I get you, here's what you do.

00:06:08.060 You click the link in the description below

00:06:09.820 and I will send you my internal document

00:06:12.320 that I use with my executive assistant

00:06:14.400 with all the different areas that we work on

00:06:17.680 to buy back my time.

00:06:19.220 That alone will save you so much time.

00:06:21.640 Second, you gotta hire someone to help you

00:06:24.100 with the delivery of your service,

00:06:25.980 the fulfillment of it. Think about it. If every time you sell something to somebody,

00:06:30.340 it creates a bunch of time taken up in your calendar, then you're not going to push as

00:06:34.160 hard to sell. So I like to recommend people hire somebody to help with the support

00:06:38.680 and the onboarding. You still might do the work, but all those questions and scheduling and all

00:06:43.660 that can be done by somebody else. Incredible amounts of value. The third hire is someone

00:06:47.880 to market your service. I can't tell you the amount of times I've worked with entrepreneurs

00:06:52.040 The revenue is up and down and up and down.

00:06:54.500 The reason why is because they do marketing

00:06:56.840 and then they get busy and then they stop doing marketing.

00:07:00.260 And literally it's this feast or famine all the time.

00:07:02.900 If you bring somebody in, even part-time

00:07:05.100 to always be marketing your business,

00:07:07.120 then you'll create a steady flow of leads and customers.

00:07:10.760 So you're never wondering

00:07:11.700 where your next deal is gonna come from.

00:07:13.240 The fourth hire is someone to sell your service.

00:07:15.400 And this is a beautiful place to get to.

00:07:17.300 And I know nobody sells as good as me.

00:07:19.220 You know you better than you.

00:07:20.420 You know what you do better than you.

00:07:21.600 how could somebody possibly do this for me trust me i used to think that till i hired a guy named

00:07:26.320 michael and on the first day michael sold better than me and when i asked him how the heck did you

00:07:32.000 do that he goes hey dan i think it actually makes you look like a real business if i'm selling you

00:07:38.000 instead of you selling yourself because that's kind of why they're coming to you and i was like

00:07:42.880 oh interesting now think about this four hires and you could be on vacation somebody else will

00:07:49.040 will create the opportunity, somebody will bring them into your world, and somebody else will bring

00:07:52.240 them on board in your business without you being involved. That is freedom. So once you implement

00:07:58.600 the replacement ladder, step three to get rich in your 30s is focus on one thing. This is going to

00:08:03.480 break some people's hearts, but we have to pick one business model. See, focus stands for follow

00:08:09.600 one course until successful. Most people fail in their business because they can't focus. When you

00:08:14.940 pick one business model, one niche, one target customer, then you become lethal because all the

00:08:21.340 energy, all your creativity, all your focus goes down on that one strategy. But it's scary. And

00:08:27.100 I'm going to encourage you to say no to everything else for three years minimum. I know. What if I

00:08:32.640 get an opportunity to invest in the next Facebook, Dan? What if my cousin comes to me with a sure

00:08:37.240 thing? When you say no to something else, you're saying yes to your goals. So the rule of thumb

00:08:43.600 for your 30s is stop trading time for money and start building systems that make money without

00:08:49.000 you. Essentially, build the machine that let the people run the machine. That's how you let your

00:08:54.940 money make you money. Level three, your 40s. See, the main advantage is experience, also known as

00:09:01.480 the gray hair advantage. My designer, Rich, said, hey, man, you look like that guy in Spider-Man

00:09:07.680 that manages the newspaper. But guess what? The greater my hair gets, the smarter I sound.

00:09:12.320 So if you're in your 40s, dig in.

00:09:14.420 This is where you can actually make the most money

00:09:16.640 because you have all the know-how,

00:09:19.740 you have the resource, you have the experience,

00:09:21.580 you have the relationships, you have the pattern recognition.

00:09:24.820 You can build the machine very quickly.

00:09:26.860 Now it's time to scale it.

00:09:28.400 See, there's three ways that I recommend doing this.

00:09:31.040 The first one is in a portfolio approach.

00:09:33.420 Essentially 70% in what you know.

00:09:35.860 See, most people diversify into things

00:09:38.320 they have no idea about.

00:09:39.520 I don't understand why they do this.

00:09:40.680 Maybe it feels mature or smart,

00:09:42.640 but I learned a long time ago from my mentors,

00:09:45.260 if I know what I'm doing,

00:09:47.560 investing in me guarantees an outcome.

00:09:50.360 Investing in somebody else, question mark.

00:09:52.720 So 70% of what you know from a portfolio approach

00:09:55.540 is saying, okay, if I'm a real estate guy,

00:09:57.700 if I build homes, maybe I should invest in multi-unit.

00:10:00.120 Essentially, whatever you're good at,

00:10:02.100 that skill, wherever you made money,

00:10:04.120 invest in other things as a portfolio

00:10:06.300 that you know very well,

00:10:08.400 because it's that information advantage,

00:10:10.480 just going to make you rich. So that's 70% of what you know. 20% is into adjacent opportunities.

00:10:16.000 For me, that's technology. Like I angel invest in a lot of things like 3D printing and drone.

00:10:21.040 And then the 10%, those are the moonshots. Those are, you know, these crazy ideas. One of my

00:10:25.800 friends is building this massive restaurant franchise. I love it. Brasa. So awesome. We

00:10:30.260 eat there all the time. Or another friend of mine is doing laundry sauce, which is a company that's

00:10:34.660 like trying to bring a millennial approach to laundry detergent. Crazy stuff that could be

00:10:39.120 massive, but it's not my core competency. The second area is become a mentor investor. Now I

00:10:44.540 kind of touched on this, but let me really dig in. Think about it. If you're in your 40s, now you got

00:10:49.660 to find some other people that are in their 20s that are willing to learn the skills that are

00:10:54.380 going to grow and you can mentor them. So finding three to five other entrepreneurs in your space

00:10:59.560 who are two or three years into the thing that you have experience and you can support them on,

00:11:04.700 I think that is a massive amount of leverage.

00:11:07.500 And what do they need?

00:11:08.840 Well, yes, they probably need capital,

00:11:10.820 but more important, they probably need experience.

00:11:13.440 And an opportunity is becoming an advisor

00:11:15.440 where you exchange your experience,

00:11:17.420 your time for equity in their business.

00:11:19.420 Now you've got shots on goal

00:11:21.280 that could turn into bigger outcomes 0.82

00:11:23.640 than your current thing you're working on now.

00:11:25.400 The third is compounding your wisdom.

00:11:27.720 See, too many people live a life that's unexamined.

00:11:30.680 I'm a big fan of doing and then reflecting,

00:11:34.120 Documenting every single pattern I've learned.

00:11:36.460 I've been doing this for almost a decade.

00:11:38.120 I've been posting on here for 10 years.

00:11:40.280 I've been sharing everything I've learned for about seven.

00:11:43.280 Because I had to document and codify it,

00:11:45.740 then I got to learn it better.

00:11:46.920 But the coolest part is those frameworks

00:11:48.840 became the tools that I could share with other people

00:11:51.460 to help them move faster.

00:11:53.120 What makes you valuable in your 40s is the experience

00:11:55.960 to come into a situation and see in 30 minutes,

00:11:59.320 identify the three things that that founder,

00:12:01.640 that entrepreneur, that business owner,

00:12:03.260 can do to change to 10x their growth because you've seen it so many times before but as a rule of thumb

00:12:09.100 in your 40s let your money work harder than you ever did your job is strategy not execution at

00:12:15.260 this point a lot of people go but what about after your 40s what then well here's how many of my

00:12:21.500 mentors have gone about it and how i plan and already am doing it too the final level your

00:12:27.260 legacy years here's what nobody tells you about getting rich there's actually a level beyond the

00:12:34.460 money this is where you use your money and your success your relationships everything you've learned

00:12:39.500 as a tool for impact not accumulation that's why it's another level it's understanding that

00:12:46.140 when you decide to teach everything you've ever learned to the next generation then you'll feel

00:12:50.780 fulfilled it's why for me i do a lot of things i run a program called king's club in my community

00:12:55.980 where I personally mentor 100 kids every month

00:12:58.560 that are 15 to 21 that want to show up and be better.

00:13:01.800 I go and I visit troubled youth at crisis centers.

00:13:04.720 I go inside prisons to speak as I travel

00:13:07.780 just to share my story, to help empower them

00:13:10.620 because I know that I'm here to be an example

00:13:13.620 for other people because people were that for me.

00:13:16.320 So the rule of thumb once you're past your 40s

00:13:18.840 is to move to another level

00:13:20.740 where this isn't about you getting richer,

00:13:22.900 it's about making others rich in more ways than one.

00:13:25.980 Here's the truth.

00:13:27.540 This game of life was never about the money.

00:13:30.480 It's about becoming the person along the journey.

00:13:33.840 When I say the world will show you where you're not free,

00:13:36.380 the ability to do the work,

00:13:38.200 being paid with money to improve your quality of life,

00:13:41.500 to get to a place where what you've done is so impressive

00:13:44.020 that other people wanna learn from you

00:13:46.200 and you share that with them,

00:13:48.140 that is what wealth is.

00:13:50.140 So now that you know this, I want you to ask yourself,

00:13:52.420 is my skill really next level?

00:13:55.000 am i really world-class at what i do have i found ways to leverage that within my existing business

00:14:00.740 with my team have i found people i can partner with to create more without having to work harder

00:14:05.760 and most importantly have i even considered that maybe sharing myself with the world

00:14:10.260 is actually what it's all about and if you're motivated by that and you want to learn the

00:14:14.380 exact system i use to buy back 40 plus hours a week so you can focus on getting rich click here

00:14:19.920 and i'll see you on the other side

Dan Martell - September 19, 2025

I’m 45. If you're in your 20s, 30s or 40s, watch this

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