Dan Martell - What it’s Like to Live Like a $100M CEO (Day in the life of Dan Martell)

00:00:00.000 I'm Dan Martell, CEO of Martell Ventures, a group of companies that does over $100 million

00:00:04.760 in revenue. I'm going to take you behind the scenes for 24 hours and show you how I get more

00:00:10.540 done in a day on the road than most get done in a month. Where are we going? We're on the highway

00:00:21.120 in Austin, Texas, man. The freaking construction zone that is the highway system here. I'm always 0.92

00:00:26.600 trying to make sure i don't bottom out uh what do we got get up at four got some work done always

00:00:33.560 quick workout boom in the car batman style to the plane heading to san diego land podcast then ai

00:00:41.000 meetup another podcast then my keynote five o'clock grab some food jump on the plane back home put the

00:00:46.280 kids in bed tonight boom that's what i'm doing today you want entertainment let's go so what do

00:00:52.600 What do you say when people message you like,

00:00:54.520 oh honey, I have the energy, people at the end of the day?

00:00:56.760 I literally, my response was,

00:00:58.840 we don't have energy, we produce energy.

00:01:02.180 At any moment, you can decide to have more energy.

00:01:05.660 When you're doing something you absolutely love,

00:01:07.560 you're not tired, you're not worried about,

00:01:10.000 you know, your next meal, you're like in the moment.

00:01:15.080 How's it going?

00:01:17.200 The spec, look at this thing.

00:01:18.980 Yeah, man.

00:01:20.220 Oh yeah.

00:01:21.320 The exhaust is obnoxious.

00:01:23.680 Pretty much a straight pipe.

00:01:25.220 You too Dan, are you good?

00:01:26.180 I'll take one, just for after.

00:01:27.540 Okay.

00:01:29.080 The hospitality, Kai, so nice.

00:01:42.020 Think about it, when I was like,

00:01:43.760 hey bro, I wanna start Martell Media,

00:01:45.840 could you imagine that this is what we'd be doing?

00:01:48.400 Dude, flying around on the PJ, doing .

00:01:50.500 That wasn't even in.

00:01:51.420 I wasn't on the vision board.

00:01:52.580 We were just going to make YouTube videos.

00:01:54.600 That's why people go like,

00:01:56.500 if you could go back and tell your 16-year-old self any advice,

00:02:00.800 dream bigger, dream bigger, dream bigger.

00:02:03.320 If people understood that they're one creative project away

00:02:06.880 from being wildly successful, one.

00:02:09.680 One song, one video, one blog post, one message,

00:02:12.600 one tweet, one introduction, one.

00:02:15.920 The whole thing, just proof.

00:02:18.340 because they make up these rules about what needs to be true for it to happen.

00:02:21.940 And if you think that it has to happen in that order,

00:02:24.320 of course it'll never happen, and it'll be hard.

00:02:31.880 I love San Diego.

00:02:33.960 I like the weather, the sunshine.

00:02:36.720 If where I lived had San Diego weather,

00:02:39.160 you'd have to come to me all the time.

00:02:40.980 I wouldn't leave.

00:02:44.440 What's up? It's him!

00:02:46.400 I was like, Sam, when did you find out

00:02:48.680 Anne was going to meet us there?

00:02:49.480 He's like, I've known for a while.

00:02:50.620 I was like, oh, I found out yesterday.

00:02:55.160 Meet him in Americano, please.

00:02:57.560 Why do I check my stories?

00:02:59.000 I always check to see what the narrative is.

00:03:01.960 Most people don't measure enough, dude.

00:03:03.260 Like, I'm checking this four times a day.

00:03:06.300 Why don't people measure?

00:03:07.540 And why do you think people don't measure?

00:03:09.540 You don't have the right system to do it.

00:03:11.160 That was the first thing I was going to say,

00:03:12.660 is they think it's too hard,

00:03:14.060 and they don't have the right tooling,

00:03:15.100 and they don't trust the numbers,

00:03:16.680 so then they stop measuring.

00:03:18.000 And then I think there's a large portion of people

00:03:20.420 that don't want to know what the reality is

00:03:22.340 because it's funner to live in make-believe land of

00:03:25.080 another invoice sent made money.

00:03:28.200 An invoice sent is not cash.

00:03:30.320 It is like celebrating you sending an email.

00:03:37.060 Round two, brother.

00:03:38.380 It's been forever.

00:03:39.200 How's everything?

00:03:40.120 Amazing.

00:03:41.040 Good, man.

00:03:41.800 Dude, appreciate you guys coming out, huh?

00:03:43.220 by the way your guy aaron we just brought him on like a month ago we're in a tedx our mastermind

00:03:48.340 brought him on and it's been a freaking game changer most business problems are people

00:03:52.500 problems yes you get the right person right yes so excited for it oh you guys got a big day so

00:03:57.300 i want to jump in next let's do it let's do it i got my man dan martell dan welcome back to the

00:04:01.780 show rich it's an honor man i'm pumped round two and uh we're gonna bring the heat today i think

00:04:07.540 this is probably the number one question that i get what should one focus on to get rich in 2025

00:04:14.180 i have nothing to sell but i'm just gonna keep saying it's ai ai ai if you don't realize there's

00:04:20.500 this whole wave of transformation i'm talking like multiple levels just ai adoption small business

00:04:27.060 like people like everybody must be using ai nobody's using it bro even my own team i walk

00:04:31.700 around i said show me your chat gpt or cloud or whatever you're using show me the history you can't

00:04:36.020 be productive member of a team if you don't use it every day half a dozen times a day period you're 0.99

00:04:41.300 not that smart don't be so freaking dumb like you it has to be used so getting into that to surf 0.98

00:04:48.340 that wave right now in 2025 right now everybody i don't care what industry you're in is a winning 1.00

00:04:55.060 recipe to future-proof yourself and monetize.

00:05:04.060 I have an interview. I do all final interviews with everybody in all my companies and

00:05:08.440 hiring a new person to replace one of my top guys. And it's speed. I don't delay. Right,

00:05:16.280 Ed? Literally between two talks. We're doing it right now. Jared, what's up, dude?

00:05:21.520 wanted to squeeze you in man i'm all about speed i wasn't gonna delay so here's the deal my job

00:05:27.100 today is to convince you not to take the job all right and uh on the back side of that i'm gonna

00:05:32.280 ask you a few questions then i'm gonna switch roles and you can ask me whatever you got by the

00:05:36.200 time i get on final conversations with people skills knowledge expertise culture fit all that

00:05:42.580 fun stuff's there i just want to make sure that you know what you're getting into and all that

00:05:46.160 fun stuff some people look at my schedule today and they go like how are you not tired i'm like

00:05:49.480 how are you so lazy because i would i want them to come along for the adventure

00:05:55.760 what's the dog's name faith faith the prayer puppy hello hey joy i'm in san diego how you

00:06:03.220 doing good how are you doing incredible name tag welcome thanks to me what's your name my name is

00:06:08.820 robin i work with brian that's my cof let's do it mike yes dan your team you guys have a super

00:06:15.800 busy schedule, so I appreciate you giving some of your time. Without further ado, let's have a warm

00:06:19.960 welcome for Mr. Dan Martel. Keep it going for Ryan, everybody. Give him some love. A lot of people read

00:06:27.880 my book because they want time freedom. I actually want to encourage you to go further than that and

00:06:32.140 go for mind freedom. Rich to me is relationships, it's family, and yes, it's wealth. Now, there's

00:06:37.680 two parts of my life. There's the media side and there's the venture side. What I realized a long

00:06:43.580 time ago is that if you have a vision for your life that you want to create something magical

00:06:49.140 something big you have to have a vision the easiest way to make anything come true 10 times

00:06:54.780 100 times easier is to have two things reach people know who you are and reputation they have

00:07:01.280 a positive understanding of who you are once you understand that everything in your life that you

00:07:06.820 want to achieve is on the backside of reach and reputation, that equals distribution. Once you

00:07:14.620 have distribution, you have audience, how easy it is to win. The other part is ventures. The

00:07:20.160 ventures for me is really about AI in my world. When I looked at the opportunity for ventures for

00:07:25.600 me was, okay, how do I take this new world, artificial intelligence, pair it with media,

00:07:31.800 and do something that leverages, and this is the other part, which is talent.

00:07:36.620 Write this down.

00:07:37.280 Two funnels.

00:07:37.740 How many?

00:07:38.380 Two.

00:07:38.840 First funnel, customer funnel.

00:07:41.420 How do I create awareness, consideration, and purchase?

00:07:44.040 The talent side works the exact same way.

00:07:46.420 I'll actually draw it so you guys get the visual.

00:07:50.220 Two funnels.

00:07:51.240 Once I go awareness, consideration, hire, literally on the drive up here,

00:07:55.260 I was doing a final interview with a very senior person in one of my companies.

00:07:58.600 Once I hire them, then I got to onboard them.

00:08:01.260 I got to develop them and then I've got to retain them. Most people don't realize if they don't

00:08:06.480 build a machine for talent, they'll always be at the mercy of the whole machine feeling heart.

00:08:12.540 If you think of the goal of CEOing a business, it's making this machine work perfectly. Because

00:08:18.740 when those things are in sync, when you can do some level of prediction and understand when the

00:08:23.120 customers are going to show up, then you figure out what's our lead time on hiring different

00:08:26.400 levels of talent and getting those people to show up and be productive, that's where

00:08:30.880 the magic happens.

00:08:33.940 Andrew, pleasure to be here.

00:08:35.100 Hey man, Andrew, what's up?

00:08:36.360 Dude, most people are overwhelmed because they have no clarity.

00:08:38.960 A confused mind gets overwhelmed.

00:08:41.180 Thank you.

00:08:41.540 Hey, thank you for your time.

00:08:42.160 If I brought you in a room and I say, guess who's the engineers?

00:08:45.160 And you're like, that guy, that guy, that guy.

00:08:46.700 And I'd be like.

00:08:48.480 Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

00:08:50.520 Love you, brother.

00:08:51.200 I love you.

00:08:51.600 I'm in San Diego and love San Diego because of Travis.

00:08:57.920 What is that?

00:08:58.300 Eight, nine, 10 years ago, dude.

00:09:00.320 You know why?

00:09:00.940 Because my YouTube channel, first video, this guy.

00:09:04.340 So I went out for lunch and he goes,

00:09:06.040 you should create YouTube videos. 0.80

00:09:07.540 And I was like, that sounds dumb.

00:09:09.860 He goes, I'd watch. 0.69

00:09:11.520 And the first thing I did, I bought a Sony camera.

00:09:13.700 I don't even know which one.

00:09:14.440 That's how technically illiterate I was.

00:09:16.240 And I sat there and I shot videos.

00:09:17.860 Here's how you run a meeting.

00:09:19.020 And it was like the door.

00:09:20.020 i still had those never made youtube but travis kept being like hey man keep doing it keep trying

00:09:25.060 it and to see that to today because of this guy literally i wouldn't be doing youtube wasn't travis

00:09:30.660 yeah clap it up so thank you

00:09:36.340 you know what sam told me this morning i said what are we doing what's the goal he goes have fun

00:09:40.820 guess what i just did had fun i love people i would literally grab all of them put them in this

00:09:45.620 Uber or this car and Rita would be like, what? We're not doing that. Get him out. 1.00

00:09:49.660 This is Ann. Hi, Ann. You're texting. Nice to meet you. Hey, man. I'm Dan. What's your name?

00:09:54.200 Kane. Hey, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, brother.

00:09:58.960 All right, all right, all right. Dan, you came all the way from Austin. Are you from Austin?

00:10:04.120 I'm not from Austin. I'm Canadian. I'm just in Austin right now with the family. So

00:10:07.660 okay. Okay. Day trip to San Diego. Hop on the jet, cruise through. I saw your schedule. It

00:10:12.640 actually inspired me i always feel like you know i'm doing a lot but i look up to you what did you

00:10:17.440 like i'm curious some people are like oh my god give me anxiety what part did you like oh no i'm

00:10:22.480 inspired i'm like he has his system so down he knows exactly what he's doing and he's going to

00:10:27.340 accomplish all of this and fly back home and just feel like kids yeah be with your kids it's really

00:10:32.260 cool what's the difference between millionaires and billionaires what's the difference i mean

00:10:37.220 You know what's interesting is I think choosing who we get advice from is probably one of the

00:10:42.900 most decisions you're going to make in your life. Most people, if they're lucky, they have a mentor,

00:10:47.520 a millionaire mentor. The challenge is that if you aspire to actually build a really massive life,

00:10:53.640 the worst thing you could do is get advice from a millionaire. So I think millionaires can use

00:10:59.840 systems to get rich. But if you want to create wealth, billionaires build brands. And it's

00:11:05.880 always been that way yeah think about like the billionaires you know you could also tell me the

00:11:10.080 brands they've built systems will help you become a millionaire but brand will help you become a

00:11:14.920 billionaire so if you have aspirations to create massive wealth i've been building companies for

00:11:18.620 28 years knowing that day one would have changed my whole life how was it what are you gonna ask

00:11:24.020 either ask how did you like that or where are we going like a dad doing a home video

00:11:28.900 hey kids kids tell me tell me about your day tell me what you did we already know this one

00:11:34.980 Because we had a whole chat about it this morning.

00:11:37.200 Yeah, we're going to MTR.

00:11:38.860 Midterm rental.

00:11:39.940 What's a midterm rental?

00:11:40.680 Over 30 days, I've been told.

00:11:42.180 How many times have you done this keynote?

00:11:44.240 This specific keynote?

00:11:45.400 Yeah.

00:11:45.720 250 reps.

00:11:47.440 Exact same talk.

00:11:48.600 Why do you think the message still resonates with people two years after you dropped the

00:11:52.720 You know, I will tell you what I think it is because I keep seeing it every day.

00:11:56.120 The title of the book is the thing people want to do.

00:11:58.780 So if anything, I got to remember next time I write a book to give it a title of a thing

00:12:02.900 that people naturally say to each other.

00:12:04.980 i'm on i was like when am i on stage he's like um yeah 18 minutes i'm like you you're gonna

00:12:16.580 stress the organizers out like if i had an event and i had a speaker going on to be like is that

00:12:21.060 can I hear you? Nope.

00:12:37.540 The coolest thing about being an entrepreneur is the fact that every day we actually get to go to

00:12:42.220 work, working on ourselves. I hope you don't miss that because there's a lot of people that work at

00:12:47.740 companies and they're not lucky enough to be on a team where the leader understands this,

00:12:50.700 put themselves in a situation where when they go to work, they develop and grow. Today, as Alec

00:12:55.600 mentioned, I have the privilege of flying into the world, speaking on stage like this. I literally

00:12:59.620 woke up this morning with my family in Austin, flew here, did two podcasts, another keynote.

00:13:04.760 After I'm done this, we're going to hang out for a bit, sign books. I'm going to jump on my plane,

00:13:08.380 fly back to Austin to put my kids in bed. So if you want to buy back your time, get a jet.

00:13:13.160 It is quite cool, but I'm telling you, there's a completely different level of operating that I

00:13:18.160 would invite you guys to consider. You guys want to learn how to do that? Say yes. Perfect. Listen

00:13:22.500 to this. It's a calendar over capacity problem. Some of you guys keep hiring people to do work,

00:13:28.700 but your life gets harder and harder because you keep hiring people to do stuff you should be doing

00:13:33.740 and you keep doing the stuff you feel guilty asking somebody else to do. If you're going to

00:13:37.840 put some money to labor, always hire first to buy back time out of your calendar. Here's how we do

00:13:44.100 it. The first thing is we audit. We look at our calendar. Most people do this wrong because they

00:13:49.500 hire people to do the thing that they actually love to do. If you're starting off and you like

00:13:54.080 really love doing deals, don't hire somebody to do the deals for you. You do the deals.

00:13:57.960 I always look at my calendar and I sort it through two week audit. I do a time and energy audit for

00:14:02.360 the past two weeks and I go, what is there that is sucking my energy? Okay. Green gives me energy,

00:14:08.880 red sucks my energy. The yellow stuff is where you got to be worried. And as you grow in business,

00:14:13.220 the stuff that's read feels really, really important.

00:14:16.980 But guess what?

00:14:17.460 When you're doing that work,

00:14:18.260 you're not moving the business forward.

00:14:19.560 So I look at everything in my calendar that is low,

00:14:22.100 that sucks my energy,

00:14:23.240 and that would cost very little to pay somebody else to do.

00:14:25.660 So far, so good?

00:14:26.340 Say yes.

00:14:27.780 That becomes a bucket that is sucking my energy,

00:14:30.740 costs very little to pay somebody else to do,

00:14:32.560 that I then go to the second step was this transfer.

00:14:34.820 And that's where I hire.

00:14:35.940 So when I transfer, I try to say like,

00:14:38.200 my first hire most of the time

00:14:40.020 is somebody that can do my accounting,

00:14:41.200 can also help my social media posting,

00:14:42.500 and can also answer emails.

00:14:44.580 What a crazy concept.

00:14:45.960 The last step is still, and this is the big one.

00:14:47.900 Think of this.

00:14:48.600 If you buy back your time

00:14:49.920 and then go hang out on a beach, that doesn't work.

00:14:52.480 Because the whole point of buying back your time

00:14:53.920 is to reinvest it in things that make you more money,

00:14:55.940 that light you up.

00:14:56.740 See, the whole point is to build the machine

00:14:58.900 that builds the machine.

00:14:59.900 You have to get it to the point

00:15:02.140 where it makes money, grows,

00:15:04.300 and creates profit without you involved.

00:15:06.680 So Phil is all about three areas of focus.

00:15:08.880 Number one is what's the next level skill

00:15:10.300 you gotta develop?

00:15:11.220 New levels, new devils.

00:15:12.260 what's the habit now check this out success is a process of subtraction not addition you think you

00:15:19.740 got to add something to your life i'm going to tell you got to take something out of your life

00:15:23.100 the vices the bad habits you know it's the thing you wake up the next morning going i really should

00:15:28.260 stop that and the third part are the beliefs you got to fill your mind with a new set of beliefs

00:15:32.780 that talks about what the world can do see some of you your next level is believing that you can

00:15:38.580 go to a next level. Fulfillment is on the byproduct of this. Waking up every day doing two

00:15:44.180 things. One, becoming the best version of yourself. What I call the 10.0 version of yourself. Step two

00:15:49.140 is share yourself with the world. A lot of you guys know you'll be creating more content. That's

00:15:52.920 the future. Personal brands, trust, speed. It's not who you know, it's who knows you. That's the

00:15:57.760 future. And you want fulfillment. I'm telling you where it exists. It exists on the backside of

00:16:01.900 waking up every day to strive to become the 10.0 version of yourself and share that person with

00:16:06.740 the world thanks for having me am i exhausted no why would i be you know why people get exhausted

00:16:22.340 because they get in their head about what they're saying and then it becomes hard my philosophy is

00:16:28.360 this i'm really good at being me how about we all agree being me is okay and then i can be me for

00:16:34.960 whole day when i hang out with my friends and we have coffee and we play i don't it's not hard

00:16:38.640 it's true when you hang out with your friends is that hard no why because you are who you are

00:16:43.200 when you try to act like somebody else because you're like oh i'm in a professional setting

00:16:46.480 you know you have to be all polished i don't want to be that i am who i am

00:16:56.880 you didn't do the face do it ready three two one

00:17:00.080 that's how she answers the phone every time i call you're so pretty you can see that 1.00

00:17:08.080 uh you know nothing that not really that busy or anything i love to call we've done worse anyways

00:17:15.440 i just want to call because we're five minutes away from jumping on the plane and heading back to you

00:17:20.000 okay love you love you

00:17:30.080 Big fan of today. It's days like today that every other day I'm like oh I could

00:17:36.520 do more. Today shows capacity. I love days where flows, the people, the

00:17:41.540 conversations. I feel like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing my

00:17:45.240 time. That's it. What do you want to say to the person watching the end of this

00:17:50.040 vlog? They made it all the way to the end. There's more. I hope you watch this and

00:17:54.620 go I'm not thinking about my time operating this way like there's more

00:17:58.100 like push push always another level just don't be scared of it don't be scared of it if they're

00:18:04.900 watching it's because they meant to watch they needed to see that they needed to see this

00:18:08.300 so i'll do it i'll show up every day now be inspired to do something with that

Dan Martell - July 01, 2025

What it’s Like to Live Like a $100M CEO (Day in the life of Dan Martell)

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript