556: Buy Back Your Time Blueprint: Work Less, Achieve More, And Become The Best Version Of Yourself with Dan Martell

Podcast Transcription: Buy Back Your Time Blueprint: Work Less, Achieve More, And Become The Best Version Of Yourself with Dan Martell

Dan Martell: Ted, it's my pleasure, man. I know you probably picked this up reading the book or watching my Instagram. Fitness is a full contact sport for me. I take it very seriously. And business like in my world I call it belt buckles and bank accounts.  

Your belt buckle can't get bigger and your bank account can't go down. So, I was really excited to share some of the stuff I've learned over the years with your audience, and it's a real honor. So, thanks for having me.   

Ted Ryce: Let's dive right in. Why is fitness so important to you? How'd that, how'd that journey come to be?  

Or how'd that conclusion come to be? That these two things, the belt buckles and the bank accounts are so interconnected.  

Dan Martell: Yeah, it's a fun question. I mean, so here's, here's a funny part. 'cause I've been, I've been studying high performers, you know, success. I've had coaches my whole life. I currently have five coaches.  

I, my first coach I hired when I was 23. I'm 43 now. So, 20 years ago. And, um, you know, I think there's no,  the sad part is, is I don't think there's a correlation between your, let's call it, uh, body mass index or percent body fat and financial success. Like, I, I, I don't. Anybody can point to examples of people that are billionaires that look like a potato, right?  

So like, I don't know if there's data to back this up, but let me just tell you my personal experience. I started in software and I was coding most of my time my, my empire that I run today, a hundred-million-dollar fund where we buy software companies prior to that, built and exited software companies.  

My whole career, you know, I run one of the largest coaching organizations for software CEOs, and I've personally been coaching for about eight years, and I love it. Um, but when I, I used to be overweight, so I used to weigh, like today I'm about 217 pounds, about 10% body fat. I run ultra mans. I've done several Ironmans.  

I work out every day. It's one of my other philosophies of sweat every day, but when I was overweight, I was 265 pounds. I'm six three, so I like carried it fairly well. Um, well, not when I was 2 65, 2 65, I was just straight up fat, but I. You know, I just was not content with myself, so there was like this energetic angst and over the years as I kind of pushed on the business stuff and had success, became a millionaire at 27, continued investing in other software companies and like I had success, but I still didn't like decide to like connect my energy and my physicality to the business stuff.   

Until I had kids. And then when I had kids, I put on a bunch of weight. My two boys are 11 months apart. They're Irish twins. They call it. This month actually is the, the month every year that they're the same age. Okay. So they're both 10 years old. And after I had kids, I put on 20 pounds and I. I was mad at myself 'cause I knew better.  

Like, I'm that guy on social media telling everybody about like positive mental attitude and all these, you know, uh, you know, if you, you got to grow through it. Can't just go through like all this stuff. So, so I kind of like, I knew I was full of shit like that. Like I'm not an idiot. I know, like you look soft.  

Like people would probably meet me and be like, okay. It's like, it's like, dude, you see these people that are like leadership coaches and then on stage you're like, you, you don't lead yourself. Like, can we just, can we just talk about that for a second?So, I was at least self-aware and know that I was a thing and I decided, you know, after my second child to just Okay, enough's enough.  

And I hired a mindset coach. He's a fitness mindset coach and, and changed my life, you know, and I know Ted, you do a lot of great work in that area. I. For me that was the unlock is correlating, not, look, it's losing weight's. Very simple is expand more, you know, energy per day than you take it.  

So, being a caloric deficit, right? Like it's mathematical at that level. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was snacking at night. The problem was eating like it's 1999 when I go travel or emotionally eating or celebrating the highs by going out and having an epic meal and, and, and comforting myself on the lows by, you know, going for brunch and having waffles and fried chicken.  

So, like it was just, working through all of these and honestly working with my coach, we discovered that I had some self-limiting beliefs around, I mean, one of them was fascinating, Ted, I didn't even know this.  

But it just came up through a conversation where I was worried. I know, I know how silly this could probably sound to some people, but I'm just going to be honest with everybody.  

I was worried if I got too fit that women would make passes at me and put in the wrong situation. I might do something that I wouldn't be proud of. That's interesting.  

Oh, you know, 'cause I was, I was on stages and traveling the world and, you know, just that energy, sometimes people are like, oh my gosh, I'm so inspired.  

But like, I literally had this weird belief that if I got too fit, that that could be a problem. And I, and, and so it was almost like a protection mechanism, if you want to call it that. So I'll tell you, man, I, um, I went on this journey. I ended up losing all that extra weight, which, here's another thing I'll say.  

Some people that have gone sideways but are carrying extra weight. It's kind of a funny concept because if they just put in the time for the next 90 days to clean up their act, they could actually keep doing the same thing they've been doing prior and feel really good about themselves. Like it's, it's really just a, you're going sideways this way.  

Why don't you just like trim it down and then go sideways. But feel great, take your shirt off. Like really, you know, feel energetic. So that was kind of the big thing. So I started with running, uh, CrossFit. Those were like my first kind of endeavors. And then I think CrossFit really, uh, installed into my mind the power of identity, right?  

Because one of the things that they teach at CrossFit is that you compete every day that you are an athlete. And that just really was like, well, if I'm an athlete, I'm not going to go and have nachos and. Pizza for lunch, I'm going to have, you know, some salad and some grilled chicken. Right. So that, that started the journey to, you know, now, seven, eight years later.  

You know, to me, I'm always training. I always think there's another opportunity for me to level up my health, my wellness, my energy, um, and it's all aspects, right? It's not even, you know, going to the gym or really what my body weight or, or fat percentage is, it's more like, how do I feel? So, you know, like some of the supplementation, the red-light therapy, the cold plunging, the breath work is like, one of my new things. In the last year, that's just been a game changer. So, and oh, and by the way, I've never increased my personal net worth faster than. Prior versus now. So it's, there's a correlation between getting fit and your financing exploding, and I think that's the coolest part. I would've done either one. They're both winners and they're, they're directly correlated. 

Ted Ryce: Let's talk about that a bit because I agree with you. You can't just get fit and then money shows up in your bank account. I am proof of that because I was super fit in my twenties and it never happened, even though I was training high net worth individuals and celebrities. It didn't happen and I kind of expected that it would. 

By the way, it's one of the, my limiting beliefs, you know, you got to learn business, but what do you attribute that to? Why fitness? What was different about Dan Martell before he was fit and after? Because you didn't magically skill up your entrepreneurial abilities, or, or did you? What happened? 

Dan Martell: No, it's, it's all, it's all the same, right? 

Like Ted, and the reason why, you know, I wrote this book, Buy Back Your Time, is you need to create the space in your life. So, most entrepreneurs end up building a business that they grow to hate. It's just the way it is, right? They hit the thing called the pain line. When they hit the pain line at different stages of growth, they usually either decide they want to sell, sabotage or stall their growth. 

And what I've discovered is, one of the biggest, so people come to me all the time 'cause they're at capacity and they're blown up, mostly 7, 6, 7 figure, multi six-figure seven-figure CEOs. I teach them how to get the time back in their calendar. But then it's what do you do with that? And for me, it's this framework that I teach, which is, it's like a ladder, right? 

,the left side of the ladder is the skills. What are the skills I have to develop so that I can grow my business, right? And we all know if we actually sat down and wrote 'em out, like, you know, maybe it's leadership, maybe it's marketing, maybe it's finance, maybe it's sales. Like there's a skill that, you know, if you were a 10 out of 10 in the world at that, it would have a dramatic impact on your life. 

It sounds like when you were in the fitness, the skill might've been business, right? Or marketing or designing a better offer or getting leverage of your time. But there are skills, right? So that's the left side of the ladder. The right side is the beliefs. You know, I had beliefs around my fitness, around my health. 

I had beliefs around business that weren't serving me right back in my early twenties. I used to believe I had to go bankrupt if I wanted to be successful. 'Cause every successful person I'd ever read about, they went bankrupt at some point in their career. So, I lived a life bracing myself for bankruptcy. 

Well, that's not a way to build an empire. Like that just doesn't happen. So, you know, really challenging your worldviews and your beliefs. And then the center of the ladder that you're climbing is character traits, right? And this all applies to health and wealth. So, the character traits are consistent, courageous, kind, joyful, generous, abundant. 

Like there are all these character traits that I would say in many cases it's the skills plus the beliefs that kind of get locked into these different steps of the ladder. And that's what we're trying to do. So why did fitness help me on the business side? Well, when I look back, it's all the things that I learned at CrossFit. I actually did a YouTube video once on like what CrossFit can teach you about business? And just unpacked the concepts that I learned at a CrossFit gym, like skills and drills, like learning how to do a bar muscle up. 

That's a skill. I did not know how to do it before I worked at it. It took me a while and eventually I did it. Or a pistol squat. Or, or, or like there are all these different skills. How does that apply to your business in developing your team? Right. The concept of having a coach. Watches you execute movement and gives you feedback or you watch your tape. 

Most entrepreneurs do not do that in a business context, which is fascinating to me. Do you pay somebody to watch you perform and give you feedback? Have you ever hired somebody to listen to your all-hands meeting or your weekly executive team meeting or whatever and give you critical feedback about how you ran and or communicated in that meeting? 

So, I just kept learning in business. I mean, triathlon was the best one, like Iron Man. That one for sure taught me the value of baseline measurement in all aspects of your life. Because once you understand training for a triathlon, three different disciplines, especially if you're doing a full-distance Ironman, which is completely like people would say they've done a half and they've done an Ironman, I ain't giving it to them. 

Just throwing that out there. If you've done a 70.3, awesome. Not impressed. One 40.6 now. Now we're talking, right, because that thing's ridiculous. And I've done two.  

But what I learned in that process, working with my coach is, you know, without the data as a baseline, you could feel like you're getting stronger, but it doesn't show up in your heart, right? 

For your overall engine. So, it just taught me the value of, you know, measuring to the level. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, we just, we don't want to know. I know this for a fact 'cause I coach so many, I ask them, I'm like, you know, what's your gross margins? They're like, uh, probably 80%. Well, probably tells me you don't know. 

So, let's do some simple math. Oh, you just told me it was 80%, it's actually 42%. Okay, 42% gross margin is a fundamentally different business than 80%. And like just that kind of stuff, it just changed everything. So, I would say I. Even like think about cold plunge, like people are like, why do you like, oh that was so funny. 

The other day my buddy Taylor just got a new cold plunge and he says, now I can become a billionaire. I thought that was awesome. 'Cause the running joke I'd have is, you know, if you didn't post about your cold plunge, did you actually cold plunge today? Kind of like being a vegan, you know, how do you know somebody's a vegan? They can't shut up about it.  

Not just, same thing with process. They'll let you know, they'll let you know. Same, same thing with, same thing with the, uh, cold plunging, but I, I look at, so definitely I use cold plunging as an example for rehab recovery. Because I'm doing so much volume in my legs. Specifically, I need to pull the inflammation. 

It's good for my body. The biggest part is the mental aspect. You know, every day there's never zero been a day where I was excited and looked forward to getting in that water, just never happened, right? It's painful. I keep it at like almost freezing, so about 3.6 Celsius. You know, the other day I went to my friend's house and he had his at 10 and I was like, 10 is not a cold plunge. 

He's like, yeah it is. And he showed Eric Cooperman said between 10 and 15. So I'm like, well, schmo poo, like I'm not, like it's got to hurt, it's got to be uncomfortable. Every day, one of the things that I hate doing the most is so uncomfortable that the rest of my day is just easy. So, I think that mentally of putting yourself into a place where it's hard, right? 

Like I've got a 50 K Ultra coming up in two weeks. I know there's a suffer fest ahead of me. I know I'm going to be going into this pain cave and I'm going to get really comfortable with being uncomfortable, and demons are going to show up, and I'm going to have to wrestle with those demons. For probably half that race. 

But I know on the other side of that, I'm just going to be a more balanced individual because that's always been the outcome of all these long trainings, these long races, and I think that it's made me just a better entrepreneur.  

Because if you think about the concept of business growth as becoming more, because the world doesn't get easier, the way we grow is we become better at dealing with the hard then. 

Putting yourself in places where it is hard by choice, which is called eustress, EUstress. So, it's different than distress. So, when we eustress ourselves by design deliberately, we literally uplevel our ability to deal with things that, for many others, would give them anxiety or put them on medication, or they would run to go self-medicate. 

That's why I've had such great business wins and results from, let's call it endurance sports or, you know, some pretty intense training, um, workouts. And I think they're connected. I think they, they, they're the rhythms of life.  

Ted Ryce: I'm with you on that, and you're definitely on the right podcast. The military calls that stress inoculation. 

Now, don't think a lot of people realize you don't just take, you don't just find genetically gifted people to go become Navy Seals. You spend multimillion-dollar training program to get them ready to go do their thing.  

And that's really the key. And so, when we're talking about entrepreneurship, I love what you said about CrossFit too, like the identity of an athlete, because I think entrepreneurs, I look at them as just desk athletes.  

You're working more with your mind. You're working more with systems and teams. You got to be in shape for that. Your mind has to be sharp. You have to be able to deal with the stress of the dumpster fires that so many entrepreneurs talk about that they've been dealing with all day. 

And that makes perfect sense. And I love how you said, putting yourself in stressful situations. Again, you made that distinction between distress, which is like, I don't know, uh, with something dumb someone could do, banging your hand with a hammer. But we're talking about using stress strategically to strengthen ourselves and, um, Yeah, you're on the right podcast, Dan. Great to have you here already. Super psyched. 

Dan Martell: And I want, I, and I knew that, Ted, can I just share this? 'Cause this one came up the other day. I was talking to my friend Coop because we were, we were talking about, you know, fitness and he went off on a rant because he sees a lot of people that are on e-bikes that really shouldn't be because if they actually just pedaled under their own power, they would have a, like they're actually out doing the work, but not doing the work, right? So, they're not getting the stimulus for the time.  

So, he was going on this rant and we were talking about like people getting fit in a caloric deficit and that it's not healthy to allow yourself to indulge in anything you want all the time. And if anything, there's power in restriction. There's power in constraints. Even though you could not doing it, a lot of people that do intermittent fasting and other forms of that have said like, yes, you're hungry, but in that state, your mind gets clear, right? Because your body kind of like, there's no toxins. It's like a lot clearer energy burn. 

And I, and as he's saying this, it's like, oh, it's, it's interesting because it's the same thing for financial health. Right? Like, I don't, because you can spend all your money that you earn every month. You shouldn't. And it's no different than going to a buffet. Right. And I think, love that. Yeah.  

There's like, I,  made this connection where. I think it's actually healthier for us financially, energetically, to live off of a smaller percentage of our income because it creates this financial discipline and energy that that actually amplifies the financial wealth, right? Just like being, you know, in a caloric deficit, not because you have to, because you choose to, helps the physicality and the fitness side of things.  

On the finance stuff, the same concept applies. When you learn to live off 10, 15, 20% of your income, everything amplifies. And most people are, they don't ever get to that point. Right? 'Cause they're, let's call it financial gluttons.  

I just thought that was neat that both 'cause you're the financial and the fitness guy. Like they have the same concepts applied in different kind of me mechanisms. Yeah. 

Ted Ryce: One of, one of the key concepts I teach my clients is like, listen, this is really just a budget. You know how you budget. You have a budget for your business. You can run ads or take clients out to dinner and fly them first class, whatever the case may be. But you need to stay within your budget. And if you do that, you're going to be, you're going to get the results that you want. But if you go, what is it into the red, then you're going to be, you're going to be in trouble. 

Dan Martell:  Not going to get the results you want. 

Ted Ryce: Not going to get the results you want. I think there's one more important point that you're making. It's this. The problem with indulging all the time is that we get, we're, we're addicted to our society, our, the way our current society is working. It's like, get hooked on the cheap dopamine doom. Scroll on social media. Watch the porn, binge the series.  

Do all the things right, but don't invest. Don't control yourself. Don't constrain yourself. And it's a way of taking back your power. And even on the neuroscientific level, we know once you start indulging, I'll use the example of food. Like let's say you're having that chocolate cake. It spikes your dopamine higher than chicken, brass, and broccoli. But the thing is, over time, the spike becomes less and less. 

You might enjoy the first bite, but by the time you're, you're done with it, you're like, I didn't even, what, what even just happened? I enjoyed the first bite. You enjoyed more the craving of it than the actual eating of it, and it's a trap. And then you try to eat more because you're craving and think maybe the next slice will give you what you're looking for.  

And what I hear you saying and what I agree with 100% is creating that discipline. Not doesn't just, it's not just about, yeah, let's be disciplined. It's like getting back control of your life and getting that feeling that you are a powerful person. In this world that's trying to, you know, I love, I love the modern world. I don't want to go live in the, the woods, but I don't want to turn into the doom scrolling junk food eating person who, you know, when, when I'm sad, I'm just going to go spend some of the money that I'm making to buy something that isn't really going to bring me happiness either. It's found in who we are 

Dan Martell: My buddy says,  you know, buy things to impress people we don't like, you know what I mean? It's kind of fascinating, but what, I love what you're saying because my other buddy Garrett says this, he says, you know, we have to be careful because things that once were a luxury, become a necessity. To your point of like, you know, something we do once in a while, if we do it all the time, it loses its dopamine hit, right?  

And now it's just, it's just part of what we expect, which isn't a bad thing, but it, it just definitely shows that, that the excess of consumption. Physical objects, possessions, or you know, food, nourishment, especially the wrong types, don't serve us.  

And I mean, this is one of the reasons why, to me, finding leverage with our time, buying back our time and reinvesting in becoming more. And then the big thing is, is experiences. 'cause there's been tons of studies over the years to say, you know, when we stack order the things that make us happier over time, this is from like Tiger 21.  

They're a very high net worth individual group. They, they, they, all their members are, you know, multi, you know, nine figure, you know, personal net worth people. They, they looked at the things that brought them the most value were things that bought them their time back. Isn't that interesting? Like the, where they got the best perceived, happiness per dollar spent, right? It was like, um, a new car or valet at the hotel.  

You know, flying business or your own plane. Your own plane. 'cause you buy your time back with your own plane, you're on your own schedule. So, it's, it's interesting how that concept of consuming stuff that makes us happy. In the short term, if you actually zoom back and what, what do we spend our time and or money on?  

There are categories of things that we know will, will, you know, statistically speaking, psychologically speaking, you know, the research shows that, um, a different set of decisions are actually going to be better for us and long-term bring us more fulfillment psychologically speaking. I mean, that's, at the end of the day, that's, that's the work I do.  

The chocolate that I, I guess I put out to the world is the business growth and the financial, and the, the integrated life and the lifestyle, but the broccoli I. Is, let's talk about the world you live in, in your mind, at every second of the day.  

Let's increase that because that, as you've shared, I'm sure, 'cause it seems like we're on the same page. It's like that feeds the body, that feeds our environment, that feeds our family. How we show up, how we deal with that stuff is everything. 

Ted Ryce: Yes. And exactly. And you know, getting stuck on the hedonic treadmill. That's the, the idea, right? Where when I was training clients in Miami Beach, I just was,  I was dumbfounded when I was training one of my clients and it just, his Ferrari, everybody else was looking at it and saying, oh my gosh, that's amazing. It was just the car he got in and drove around every day. Yeah, he liked it, but you know, it was just, it was just the car.  

So, I want to get into your book because your book. Was recommended to me by a business coach that I work with, and then my business partner read it and said, you have to read this book. And I was like, okay, you know, there's a lot of books I have to read, but alright, I'll do it. She was really emphatic about it and when I listened I was like, oh my gosh. This is the key.  

This is what people are missingThis not only is it, I think it's useful beyond just entrepreneurs. In fact, I had a, before we even hopped on, I had a conversation with a coaching client who is in a top law practice in Virginia. He is struggling with this idea, but lawyers sometimes don't have that on. They're, they're not going to buy a book for entrepreneurs on how to buy back their time. But I was like, you have to read Dan's book.  

So, I just recommended it to him. I said, you must read this. You stop everything else that you're reading and read this book because this is what you're missing. He's doing too many things that stress him out and not enough of the things that lift him up. Make him feel like, Hey, you know what, even though I'm making, he's making more money than he ever has, but he's not having the experience of being in the zone in life, which is something you talk about in your book.  

So, there's so many concepts in the book. What I would just say before we dive in, Dan, is do yourself a favor. Just go to Amazon and get Dan's book, “Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom and Build Your Empire”.  

If you have any issues with time. You feel like I do a lot of things that don't bring me joy or that I don't love or kind of stress me out and you don't have time for say your health, then you need to buy this book.  

And if you're an entrepreneur, you need to buy this immediately and start listening or reading it. So, let's talk about why you bought, uh, I'm sorry, why you wrote this book. 

Dan Martell: Yeah, the reason I wrote the book is I learned these strategies 15 years ago from the technology sector, right? One of my mentors, um, was a guy named Naval Ravikant, and he's been on Joe Rogan. 

He is very well known. Yeah. So he talks about this in, uh, the book. I don't even know if Naval wrote the book, but I think it's called Naval ISS or something like that. But he talks about the four ways that we get leverage. Um, and my buddy Ale kind of restated them as the four Cs, but essentially it's Code, Capital, Content, which just is an example, SOPs, and then Collaboration. 

So, I've been applying the concept of leverage to buy back my time almost in the early days, just selfishly to build companies like, it's like no million-dollar company was built off $10 tasks. It's just physically impossible. And what I've learned, as I said earlier, is that most people end up being successful, not most, but the ones that are, are successful in spite of themselves, and they end up building businesses they grow to hate. 

And, and most companies, the biggest risk to the business is the CEO waking up one day and deciding, I don't want to do this anymore. It's not what I signed up for. I thought I was building a life of freedom and flexibility. And it seems the more I grow, the less of that I have. So, I'd rather do less and make more money. 

And maybe it's just me freelancing and I speak to the creators. My brother's a home builder, my wife's friend is an agency. My best friends own local businesses, HVAC companies, coffee shops. Are podcasters, are authors, and I wrote the book for them. It was literally like, okay, I already help the best software CEOs, you know, go public or raise hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. 

I want to write a book for the people that may have never heard of these concepts this way. So, the big idea, as you alluded to, is if we look at the problem as a calendar problem, not a capacity problem. And, and the statement, the buyback principle states, it's the first principle. It's like you can't, mathematically, it's impossible for you to argue with this. 

You don't hire people to grow your business. You hire people to buy back your time. 

Ted Ryce: Talk about what that means. 

Dan Martell: When you have a problem in your business, most people run to hiring somebody to add capacity. So, if you're, if you run a design agency, you hire a designer. If you run a plumbing store, you hire a plumber, you hire people to do the thing that you sell if you get busy, which leaves you with managing somebody else that you pay. 

Now you know, significant for their skill and expertise. And then you're stuck doing all the stuff that they wouldn't want to do anyways, which is typically the administrative etcetera stuff. And what I teach in the book is this framework called the buyback loop. And the buyback loop walks you through the three steps on how to free up your calendar to go do things that make you more money and that light you up energetically. 

'Cause here's what I know. I'm happier when I'm more profitable. I'm happier when I get paid more. Okay, cool. I'm also happier when I'm doing certain types of activities, like this conversation. I like when I saw this in my calendar, I was like, yeah, game on. Like this is exactly what I want to do. I don't want to go to a finance meeting. 

I don't want to sit on a panel reviewing a bunch of applicants for jobs. Like I know what I love to do. So when we start giving ourselves permission, To analyze our calendar. And that's the really, the first step in the buyback loop is a time and energy audit. And we do a time and energy audit on our calendar and then realize we're doing a bunch of tasks that we could easily pay somebody else, uh, lower cost than our time is worth.  

That are things that take our energy and we could get that off of our calendar to then create the space for us to become more, to invest our time. Like I want the plumber to do more plumbing. I don't want the plumber to do invoices. I don't want the plumber to manage his schedule. I don't want the plumber to manage leads and opportunities. 

I want the plumber to plum. I want the podcaster to podcast. I want the coder to code. I want the PR person to pitch. Until you get to a place where all the 80% of all the other stuff that is the business is being done by other people, you're charging a premium for your time and now you have even more demand than you could possibly fulfill in your week. 

Then you hire somebody to start doing, you know, production with you or plumbing with you designing logos for you, etc, so that you can level up and go build the marketing strategy, and then eventually the sales plan, and then eventually a leader structure. 

When I show people the, the process of audit transfer fill, which is the buyback loop, it seems so simple, and it is, but it's very powerful. Like, for example, if you audit for your time and energy, buy back your time using the, the transfer processes that I teach, camcorder, method being one of my favorite. And then fill your calendar back up with things that make you money, light you up. Then it's impossible for you to build a business you grow to hate. 

But most people actually, Ted, they, they mess it up on the fill part. And I talk about this in the book, like my buddy Clint, you know, he bought back his whole week. He said, this is the only meeting today that I have in my calendar. And I said, dude, you must not have heard the message then.  

'Cause your job is to buy back your time to go grow your business, not to sit on the beach. Or get caught up on Netflix and this, and this is funny, Ted, like, you know, I'm Canadian, so it's hard for me to brag, but you know, I have a, I have my own jet, so I have a private plane. And some people that don't know me well think I'm weird because of how deliberate intentional I am with my time. 

Or how quick my team will say no to stuff or you know, like I'm very, I'm very intentional where I spend my time, but I always kind of think to myself as like, why would you think that's weird? Why would I invest millions of dollars in my own plane to buy back time- let's call it hours, really sometimes - to be closer to my family, to then waste it on things that are not aligned with my goals, my priorities, my interests. 

And I think that's the cool part, is that when we actually give ourselves permission, To say, okay, here's where I'm at. Here's where I want to go.  

And in the chapter 13 of my books, Dream Bigger, Achieve Bigger, which is my favorite chapter. But you know, I got to get people some financial wins at the beginning of the book, which I do. 

And then we start talking about the fun stuff. But once you understand the why behind all of it, why we build businesses, why use the word empire, which is a scary word for a lot of folks, but you, you know, you mentioned your audiences, you know, fairly, you know, seven-figure CEOs. Empire for me is a life of unlimited creation, I never have to retire from.  

I want that for every person. I want that for a podcaster, a painter, everybody. Artists like, why not? And the way we do that is by working our way through our capacity and our calendar to become, to, to invest our time to become more so we have more to give the world. And that's, that's why this book was a two and a half year labor of love. 

I spent a lot of time making sure that the, the project work and that it resonated, and I'm really glad to see tens of thousands of people every month buy the book and share the message like your business partners did with you.  

Ted Ryce: Yeah, and I would say that one thing I really like about your book is not only do you have the more formally recorded sections, But after the sections, you'll give just like a, like a conversational talk like we're having right now about this section and you'll, you'll share some insight about it. Really enjoyed that. And I would also say it's a book... 

Two things about your book. I'd say number one, it's a book that you study and if you're great at reading a book or listening to a book, whatever the case may be, and implementing on your own, fantastic. You need to get this book because you give an excellent framework. You, you talk about the step-by-step process, so you could sit down and implement it. 

If you're like me though, and you get easily overwhelmed, even if you have a framework. Hiring, becoming part of your coaching group is something I would recommend. It's, um, it, it to, to help implement this process.  

It's something that you and I have talked about. My business in part, my business partner and I, we know we, we have to end up working with you after our contract is up with these other people who are working with, who are actually excellent, but there's. 

When she read your book, she was just like, this is what we're missing. This is what we're missing. We need this process because we already have the skills. I don't have any problem saying I'm world-class coach. I get world-class results. That's how I know. And, but we're, we're having some challenges. The things that you talk about in the book, like what is the process? Who do you hire first and what you said, I mean, you just give pure gold away in the book.  

One of the things you talk about is you don't outsource sales and marketing. You talk about start getting rid of like the checking your email and so you give a process to go by. So if you're. And I think that's what you mean. In part, when you talk about you don't hire people to grow your business, you need to be super strategic about who you hire. 

And it's really about buying back your time. And if you don't do it this way, it's just not, I, not only, well,  

Dan Martell: You grow and you're not making any money. Like it's the whole like, uh, drive for what do they say in golf drive for, you know, I don't know the applause, but put for the wins. 

Like, a lot of people, they measure their success based on top line revenue. I measure my success based on profit paid to me as personal income, right? And like, oh, distributions, taxes, whatever. That's my, that's my test, my, my personal net worth sheet. Okay. That to me is how I measure my entrepreneurial scorecard. 

And the challenge is, is. It feels good to hire people to the side or above you. It's actually an a very, um, if you don't have the capital means, look, if I start a company tomorrow, I hire a CEO to start the company. But I have the capital means most entrepreneurs, they're starting at the bottom and they're trying to work their way up. 

So, I teach the buyback rate so that you, if you follow that formula, it's impossible for you to build what I call a house of cards and be too top-heavy. If you're top-heavy, you'll just collapse on yourself. You're stressing yourself out because you got all these people that you're paying a lot of money to do work. 

You don't have enough business. You have a bad quarter. Et cetera. Whereas what I teach you is how to identify, and there's a formula as you, you alluded to the replacement ladder, and it's, it was this challenge that one of my friends asked me one day, about five years ago, and he said, if you were starting from scratch, what would the order be of your hiring? 

And that's like, Ted, that's a big question. At the time I was like, you know, usually I hire based on problems and you know, throughput and strategy. But I said, okay, if I had to like build a template that would work for 99% of business owners. Alright. Here's what it would be, and specifically what I would get them to take over. 

The first one for every individual and I've said this publicly, if I lost everything tomorrow, no problem. I've already talked to my brother. I'm going to move into his house, he's going to lend me some money. I'm going to hire an executive assistant, which is level one of the replacement ladder.  

And because I will be out there in the world selling and delivering and they will be, take care of all the administrative functions, and honestly, within about three to six months, as long as I still have my relationships and my mental capacity we're moving back into our home. Like not a big deal, right?  

Like that's the, the reason why they're the first person on the rung is because the amount of leverage for the dollar invested is just so high, right? Most executive assistants, if you actually give them your calendar in your inbox, at minimum, to manage. 

'Cause the inbox is nothing more than a public to-do list of other people's demand on your time from strangers on the internet. If you get somebody else managing all that, which is also their task list, like what do you get your assistant to do? It's in your inbox. Just let them process first. Then you get back 25, 30 hours a week. 

Holy moly. What do you do at that time? 

Go to the next level. Make sure you have a - like you said - a world-class offer. If you're a world-class coach, cool, let's lock and load that. Let's hire somebody to help you on the onboarding, on the support. That's level two. Then we go to marketing. What's our marketing system that we've built so that it's creating repeatable, scalable lead generation, right? What are we doing? Do you have a partner strategy. Do we have Facebook ads? Do we have a publishing strategy?  

We need to - we need to document that, lock it in, create a rhythm and a system, hire somebody to own that. Now we move to level four, which is sales. And you know, for a lot of entrepreneurs, I was just talking to my cousin yesterday and he admitted, "I'm still, 95% of our sales goes through me." 

And he knows that's silly. This is - like a multiple seven-figure company. And he's like, "I just can't let it go." And I go, I know, it's so scary, but let's talk about that. And I walked him through the process on how to do it so that it's actually not scary and very logical, and I guarantee he's going to hire a salesperson. 

It's going to transform his life. The reason why at level four, I call that stage "freedom as a feeling," is because this is the point and I want everybody to consider this listening.  

This is a point where every business wants to get to where you have somebody that's out there generating awareness, demand, marketing your business, somebody else that has that conversation with that person, and ideally enrolls them, invites them, sells them into the thing you have, and then somebody in your organization that grabs that relationship and onboards them and nurtures them and makes sure that they're well supported, even if you're like traveling or whatever. 

So while you're sleeping, while you're on vacation, the business is still moving forward and it's only four hires, and I think it's a beautiful place. It's literally four hires that allows you to build a business that your calendar and your allocation of time are only things that are green, that light you up and that make you the most revenue per hour. 

So now you can work 35 hours a week making a lot of money, having the time and energy for your fitness, for your family, for your community, for your spirituality. And I just think that message, man, I would - I will put my head through a frigging brick wall to make sure that gets out to the world. Like, I will - like, I, I'm like, oh, maybe that's what I'm here on earth to do is push this movement forward. 

'Cause man, I wish I would've got it when I was in my early twenties because I - I made all the mistakes. Ted, you read the book, every possible mistake you could make, I made it. Luckily, I'm a quick learner and I keep stacking growth, and today I live a very magical and - and beautiful life. But, there's nobody that says like, oh, you don't understand. 

Oh, no, no, no, no. I understand. Let's talk about these beliefs around people, and nobody can do it as good as you and, you know, can't afford it. And all these - all the beliefs. Let's talk about what you think they are and let me show you a different approach. 

Ted Ryce: Dan. This is a very different interview than what I usually do, but I thought it was so appropriate because some of the challenges, I can think of a client right now. 

He skipped off on his call last week and I haven't heard from him this week. He's an entrepreneur of an agency and he had to drop this - the call with me because of a business issue.  

Now, I haven't talked with him, so don't know that much about this situation, and perhaps it was completely legitimate. But my point in bringing this up - how I think this plays into what we talk about here on Legendary Life with health and fitness, and also the things that sabotage people - is so many of my clients go for surface-level solutions. 

 "I just need a diet. I just need a workout routine." But why do they keep needing new ones? Why do they keep gaining the weight back? And certainly, a major source of stress for so many of my clients is their business. And so not only do I see how you can help our listeners get to that next level by better strategies and a better mindset.  

But I see how this book can help me coach my clients until, you know, they get your book and implement it themselves, but start to sell them on these ideas. Like, listen, if your business is sabotaging your health, then you're doing your business wrong, and there's got to be a better way. 

Dan Martell: A hundred percent. I mean, I share the story of Stewart in my book and you know, this is a guy that thought he was doing everything right and his body says no and has an anxiety attack -at the time, he thought a heart attack - at Disneyland of all places, right?  

And it's no different than another one of my friends. I was visiting his office last week and he got my book, hired an assistant, delegated his inbox, his calendar, and as I sat there at his office, eight people in a 45-minute conversation came to the door and interrupted us. 

So, it's fascinating for me to watch. 'Cause I think some people may be under the illusion, Ted, that maybe this client you're speaking of might feel like they have things together, but they're not even aware of the symptoms that to any other person looking from the outside would go, "Oh, no, no, no. That's not normal. How long you been in business? Eight years? That's an abnormal problem to have."  

And that's the whole idea of even understanding the life cycle of a business and the types of problems, right? It's like when you're a baby, it's normal to, you know, poop in your diaper, right? 

When you're a teenager, not normal, right? So, when you're starting a business, cashflow issues normal. If you're eight years into the business, abnormal. So, like, there are all these - these, these things that unless you have somebody like yourself, a coach, seeing you operate from the outside, it's just really tough for people to see that and - and self-awareness, I say all the time, you can read all the books you want in the world, but if you don't learn how to read yourself and be self-aware, then no book's going to transform you, because it'll just be information. It won't be insights to change of behaviors and habits, and I think that's the work we do as coaches. 

We sell points of view. We're professional dealers of points of view, POVs. I have a point of view and a belief system that's fundamentally different than when you have that generates these results. Let me walk you through it and hopefully I can crack some of your limiting beliefs, your belief blockers, your mindset problems so that you can adopt the new perspective and point of view to get the results that you're after.  

And I think that's like - that's, that's the funnest thing in the world to do. 

Ted Ryce: Man, you know, coaching, it's not quite accepted as the most powerful method to get results. I think there are other problems. I mean, I remember I hired a coach for $5K, went to his group retreat for a weekend. 

The guy made promises, didn't deliver on them. And I walked out. And at that time, Dan, man, I was struggling financially, really looking for a breakthrough. I went and got a $5,000 loan from the bank to pay for it. And then I came away. It was a powerful lesson, but not in the way I hoped.  

And so, you can go, you can get with the wrong people, but in general, you know, take your time, find coaches, listen to them, read their books. Like you - if you have it, I mean, Dan, it's just amazing that you're doing coaching because you - you obviously don't have to do it at all. 

Dan Martell: No, I sometimes do my buyback rate, and I,  

Ted Ryce: you're like, "This isn't profitable."  

Dan Martell: Yeah. No, but I mean, as you know, I think the reason we're here on Earth is very simple: We're here to become the best version of ourselves, what I call the 10.0 version, our greatest self. Then share that person with the world. Right? 

Heal yourself and help other people heal themselves. I think that's the ultimate gift that we can leave the Earth, and it's the driver. I can prove it. Just like when we have kids, why do we have kids? What do we want to do for our kids? We want to create a better life for them than we had. 

That's built into our biology. That's like what every person - it's why, you know, even billionaires when they're later in their life, they go, "Hey, I, I now want to matter. Right? Okay, I made money. That's cool. But if I died today, nobody would care. I didn't actually matter to any other person. 

Maybe some people that work for me." And so like, it's kind of funny that significance is something many people will eventually get to once they have financial success. I'm just grateful that I figured it out at a relatively - you know, seven years ago where I was like, okay, I made the financial wins. 

And I think there's more for me to give. I mean, right now I literally work with my media team and just say like, I want to die empty. Like, whatever you guys need from me, record me to remix it, share it. Let's hire editors. Let them go nuts on all the, we have so much footage, let's just give it all to the world. 

So, the book was a really cool endeavor. Definitely got other books in me, but not for a while. Like I'm cool pushing this message for the next decade if that's what it takes. I just want to get that snowball going so that people are aware. I'm okay with people deciding if they're aware to not take action. 

But it's my job to make sure that everybody's aware. And I think you do the same thing. It's like, it's not an or, it's an and, right? You can have your business succeed AND be in incredible shape and have your fitness. I think even that mindset, people just don't believe it. They're like, "Oh, I got to put my," you know, people do, "I'm going to sacrifice." 

Why? Who said that? Who said you had to? You know, at the end of my book, I talk about this - the very last bonus chapter. I wasn't even going to add it. It's called The Seven Pillars of Life. And it's this process I do weekly, and I share a story of an entrepreneur that I remember where I was sitting when he told me this story. 

But essentially, his business was struggling and he told his wife, "For the next two to three years, while I figure this out, you're going to have to take care of the kids because I'm going to be gone before they wake up, and I'll be home after they go to bed." And for two years, he didn't see his kids during the week. Dude, I was like, and I feel bad for saying this, but I had to. 

I said, "They never asked you for that. They did not ask you for that at all. So, you made it up in your head. You decided that you had to sacrifice, and it's all made up. We decide and once I showed him the process, he kicked himself in the butt. He, you know, "I wish I would've known this before." 

It's like, I know you didn't know it then, but let's not make the same mistake. And if you have friends that are going down that same route, just tell them. Tell them there's a different path. 

Ted Ryce: Dan, I never used to believe in the idea of fear of success. But now I've found it in myself, and I think so many people, including entrepreneurs, are addicted to the struggle because if you got rid of the struggle, what would you do with all the idle time? 

Even one of my clients, he said, "I've been, I was thinking about selling my business until I read these studies showing that guys who sell their business, or women too, but people who sell their business end up getting into a depression afterwards because it's the most amount of money they've ever had and the most amount of, I guess, lack of purpose or identity when it was all wrapped up in their business."  

Have you ever seen that? What are your thoughts on fear of success and why some people might not be moving forward in solving these things? 

Dan Martell: A thousand percent, Ted. It's an awesome question. It's actually really insightful. I, in 2008, uh, would've been 2008, I was 28 years old and I built this company, Sphere Technologies. And this was, uh, right before the crash in like 2009. I had the opportunity to exit my company. 

Part of the negotiation with a US firm was that, I had a zero-day earnout. Essentially, I had to stay on for six months as an advisor to the company. But because of the way I built it, I was fortunate that like the customers had long-term contracts, the software was in place, I had great leaders, etc., and there was no risk on my part not being the CEO. 

So, I sold and I became a multimillionaire. At 28 years old, and I remember the day. I can tell you the color of the wall, my bed, the linen, the sun, the angle, the blinds. The morning after. It was the Monday. So deal closes on a Friday, press release gets sent out. And on Monday morning, not the weekend, but Monday morning, I woke up with a hole inside me that I had no idea was created from that transaction. 

Because for the first time, I - at that point, four years while I built this company, I worked a hundred hours a week, gave it my soul, everything. And Dan Martell was tied to Sphere Technologies. I was the company, the company was me, every person, every process, every strategy, every customer relationship, like I super personal and driven and, and, and took it on the chin and fought the hard fights. 

And I remember waking up and I - it was the first time in a long time where nobody needed me to get out of bed. When you talk about not having purpose, it was jarring. I mean, at the time I - it was the same. Like I got emotional over it. I. A few days later, I started having panic attacks, anxiety attacks over it. 

I went to see my therapist, this guy Manuel, and you know, he's a funny dude. He's like, "Yeah, you're having anxiety attacks. 'Cause essentially your identity was tied up in your business and it's like a loss." You said it's similar, not to the same degree obviously, but similar to a loss of a child. 

Like your business was your child. It's now no longer yours. And you know, so I mean, dad, it was crazy. He made me walk around with a rock in my pocket. Squeeze it. Why a rock? I don't even know. He's like, "Anytime you feel it coming on, squeeze the rock." I'm like, "Okay, whatever dude. Like I'll listen to you." 

He did gimme some advice too. He said, "The water's really good for you, so you should get a boat." And I was like, I can get behind that. So, I bought a brand-new boat and spent more time on the beach and out in the ocean, and I worked through that, that, that feeling, that loss of purpose. 

And you know, where most people would celebrate the outcome, I realized that A: I cannot tie my self-worth to my external outcome. So even though it was probably one of the hardest periods of my life, which sounds bananas 'cause financially I never had to worry about money again. But personally, internally, there was a major deficit and a hole. 

I went forward with this lesson of never, ever, ever tying my personal identity, my self-worth to any of my external accomplishments or achievements or anything, or even my possessions. That's a beautiful lesson to learn. Like I always tell people today, your happiness is a byproduct of your ability to be okay with losing it all. 

It's that simple. Like some people, if there was a fire and their house burnt down, they would be. Some people would go into a depression tailspin, they would just be forever overwhelmed of like the loss. Okay? Why? Like, what does it mean? What meaning do you give that, right? If you buy a supercar, right, and I have them and you and all, whatever, what, for whatever reason, you lose it. 

 If that's going to send you into a depression, then that possession possesses you, right? Think about that. If having, 'cause the other day I was doing a road bike, you know, big training, a hundred K road bike. Um, and I went by my friend's house and I saw his parents in the, you know, I didn't stop or anything, but I just saw 'em and I was like,  

"Wow, they still live there. This is from 25 years ago." And it occurred to me like they lived a pretty, you know, relatively modest life. They live in a, you know, relatively modest home and. If they had a hundred million and then lost it all a year later, it would probably be devastating to them. Right? You see this all the time, but they, they also have never had a hundred million. 

So, the life they live today, they feel good about. So I was, it was actually a really interesting thought experiment that I had to play with myself with, which is, to the degree we create meaning around having and losing really dictates how much of the stuff that we have controls us. When we can get to a place where we are incredibly grateful for what we have, right? 

What I call the grateful grind, but desire more because we know in our heart there's more to give. And, but for whatever reason, if that doesn't materialize or we lose it, that's okay. Like Ted, I'm, I'm not joking. And I, and obviously it would hurt my family 'cause they don't have the same, I would call it mental maturity as I do. 

Right? But if you took everything away from me tomorrow and I had to sleep in a tent on the side of the street with my two boys and my wife, I probably wouldn't even cry. I would just be like, I know they would be sad if I was sad. I would be sad for them, but I would just be like, "Hey guys, this is going to be an incredible story. 

It just is like a great story is, how bad was it? How, how big of a transformation did you have? And tell us the different setbacks along the way." Right? The bigger the monster, the bigger the hero. So if you're like, went from everything to nothing and then built it back up again and again, that's a very unique perspective on life that I know I have. 

I think about that stuff, right? Because I don't want my possessions to possess me, right? Like, dude, I drive a supercar on dirt roads all the time because I like driving it. And I go for trail runs with my buddies and, and you know, I pull up into the woods and I've got a bright orange McLaren parked in the frigging amongst the campers wherever we're at. 

The other week was hilarious. My friend took a picture 'cause they were like, it's actually that, that you can see it right there or right there.  

But to me, I'm not going to com. Like I don't care. People are like, "What if you, you have a rock, do something. So what? What? Who cares? 

My, my stuff is - it's not Dan Martell is not Dan Martell. I'm not even Dan Martell when I get into that. But I am. Who I am is not dependent on the stuff I have or where I live or the possessions. I am who I am because of who I am. I am 

Ted Ryce: Love that, Dan. Listen, it's, uh, it's been an incredible opportunity to have you on the podcast, and I can tell you're just fired up about this and your message and your purpose, and really appreciate you so much, and appreciate your book. 

But I had even more fun talking with you and learning from you. I actually took so much away from this personally speaking with you and, I just want to thank you for coming on and doing what you do. Really appreciate you, Dan.  

Dan Martell: Oh, my pleasure, Ted. It's an honor. And if anybody I can be of support, just find me on Instagram, follow me, send me a message, let me know you heard us on this conversation and uh, you know, I'll do something special for your audience 'cause I would love to honor them, especially if they stayed real to the end. 

If you message me on Instagram, EA, Executive Assistant, I will personally send you my internal playbook, the Google Doc, like copy-paste it, just make a copy of it. To help you on your journey to, um, hopefully buy back your time. 'Cause I know having a great executive assistant can be a game-changer for people. 

So Instagram, Dan Martell, just follow me first so I know, you know, a little value exchange and then I'll send you the direct link. No opt-in, no nothing.  

Ted Ryce: Got it. Well, I'm going to do that myself. And if you're listening right now, a hundred percent 

Dan Martell: I'll send it to you.  

Ted Ryce: I appreciate that, Dan. And if you're listening right now, you got to go to Amazon and get Dan's book. Seriously. I mean, I know there's maybe a hundred business books that you have to read.  

But if you're in a place where, again, like what Dan said earlier, where it's okay to struggle with money when you're first starting out, but now you're struggling with some things and you've been stuck a little bit for years and you're not getting ahead as fast as you would like. 

You've got to get his book. You can get that on Amazon, of course, Buy Back Your Time. And I will have the link to Dan's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But if you want to go there right now, it's @DanMartell, and that's on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. But make sure you reach out to him on Instagram if you want to get that executive assistant document. 

So, Dan, thanks so much. Would love to do this again sometime. I need to follow your way, man. I need to. 

Dan Martell: You got to get on my team, man. You come over here and finish your process and I'll show you that. We'll go fast. I always say the book is like taking the chairlift to the top. 

Coaching with me is like taking a helicopter. Helicopters are just a lot more fun. 

Ted Ryce: A lot more efficient, and much faster. Dan Martell, thanks so much for sharing your time today. Can't appreciate you enough here. Thanks.  

Dan Martell: Thanks so much. Have an amazing day.