Wealth, Life Design, & Energy

I’ve been in the financial business since 1998. Sure, it was humble beginnings at 19 years old, mostly peddling life insurance and mutual funds. But it led to growing and selling an Inc 500 firm.

Over the last few decades, I’ve learned much from masterminds, books, podcasts, coaching, and courses. Yet, the last few years tested me. I developed character through pain, experience, ups and downs, and the tough consequences of being sloppy instead of a steward.

Sometimes, pain and struggle unlock hidden value and unveil the very content I share.

In 2022 and 2023, I learned more than the previous two decades combined. It wasn’t easy. It impacted every area of my life, including my health.

I was diagnosed with stage four kidney disease in 2023. Between doing a book tour while unwinding a partnership and divorcing from Wealth Factory (my former company), my blood pressure reached 192 in late November 2023—holy shit.

In 2005, I got an ultrasound showing cysts on my kidneys.

My grandfather and my mother both had kidney transplants, so the doctor thought we should check. The only advice the doctor gave me was to avoid caffeine and minimize protein. I figured I could handle this with my mindset, nutrition, stress management, and natural modalities.

I did stem cell therapies, tried various diets, used certain supplements and peptides, and other natural remedies to hold the cysts at bay.

For years, my BUN and creatinine levels were manageable until I found myself regularly stressed in a start-up business, and the lack of alignment with my former company and a tough business partnership all contributed to high levels of stress. This stress was poison to my kidneys.

Logically, I know worry is of little value. Worry is thoughts devoid of action—a terrible use of the imagination, and the Italian side of my family are world-class worriers. This worry was something trapped in my mind and my body. Yes, my body (shoulder, neck, hip). Through somatic therapy and psilocybin sessions, this came to surface.

Worry.

This was epigenetically programmed and handed down to me. In 2003 it was showing up in my blood work, disrupting my sleep and diminishing my kidney function.

This was especially confronting and concerning, considering the messages in my book and blogs. I should know better. Scarcity destroys wealth and robs happiness…now I was seeing the impact on my health.

Was I going to need to be on dialysis?
Was I going to die early?
Who would I be hurting or letting down?

My adrenals were shot, so not only was I feeling tired, but ironically, I couldn’t sleep.

Insomnia brought a unique blend of insanity. Irrational thoughts were hijacking my mind like little terrorists.

Scarcity.

Ugh.

As an author who frequently writes and speaks about this, how could I be susceptible to something I logically understood but still felt emotionally stunted and trapped?

Well, I guess none of us are enlightened. Being alive and human means making mistakes and having thoughts enter our minds outside our intent or control (we can choose what to pay attention to).

The very message of Money Unmasked, my latest book, was that sacrifice wasn’t required to succeed. And yet here I was, sacrificing my happiness to avoid hurting the feelings of my friend and business partner, my brother-in-law, and my former business partner…YIKES.

In one situation, if I continued, I’d sacrifice my values to keep substantial cash flow. This was an individual in an organization with whom I no longer aligned (even though I sold my company, I had a licensing deal paying me six figures per month).

Playing to win in the start-up and playing not to lose with my licensing deal. SACRIFICE.

My health was suffering, and so was my happiness. This was my rock bottom. Tired, sick, frustrated, and in pain. Feeling regret, feeling trapped, and frankly, feeling foolish.

At first, I was judging myself for the mistakes I made. How could I let this happen? Selling my company to someone I didn’t want to be around or allowing someone to get 50 percent of everything I was building in the new company.

It would have been easy to see if I was consulting someone else, but sometimes, our emotions cloud our own judgment. We are too close to it. I wasn’t listening to my intuition. I hoped for the best, but hope isn’t a leadership strategy.

It is hard to admit. I was hard on myself.

Again, I was suffering because I was playing to win, a form of scarcity to advance my start-up with someone with a different work ethic and in a different stage of life. I was working hard and giving up 50 percent of everything I made. It didn’t make sense, but it taught me a lesson, even though it was one of the hardest things to unwind.

At the same time, I had built another company for a decade and sold it for less than other offers because of a lucrative licensing deal and trying to be a good team player. Giving a partner a chance instead of selling it more to an outside party.

Shortly after selling, we didn’t value the same things, and the company’s direction no longer represented my values. I was filming ads and doing webinars but felt disconnected from the actual people we were serving. I stared at a screen instead of connecting with those we served. I didn’t want to let the clients down, but there was no fun, no depth, and it chipped away at my soul. It was time to let go.

Looking back, 2022 and 2023 gave me time to build character and consider my wins and lessons. These years led to more writing, more depth in my personal development, more clarity in what I wanted (and didn’t want), being willing to ask for help, knowing my value and standing for my value, and the ability to see what skills would be required to develop to make a bigger impact.

Wins and lessons.

The wins:

1. Discovering my lifelong business model—MULTIPLIER.
2. Developing new skills—comedy, creation, writing, leadership.
3. Expressing myself with comedy and getting my special on Amazon Prime.
4. I wrote Disrupting Sacred Cows, rewrote Killing Sacred Cows and What Would the Rockefellers Do?.
5. Ending harmful relationships and developing new relationships.
6. Uncovering and living my values.
7. Reconnecting with old relationships and forming partnerships with a new level of appreciation and understanding;

The lessons:

1. People pleasing isn’t a viable leadership strategy and erodes expression and value.
2. Listen to my intuition.
3. There is never a convenient time for hard conversation.
4. Integrity is a two-way street.
5. Know and stand for my value.
6. Be a steward by creating enterprise value.
7. Complaining has a cost.
8. The win is in the right work.
9. Build an amazing team, collaborate, and go all-in on what I am doing with a lifetime view.

When there is more at stake, the lessons can be more painful. That very pain is what may allow for the lesson to last. Not just words in a book or lessons from a stage, but experiences in life.

Quality of life matters. Energy matters. Living wealthy matters.

Wealth, Life Design, and Energy. The big three.

These go together and impact each other. Yet we have been indoctrinated to give up life along the way to have wealth one day, someday. We sacrifice our energy for the hope of a big payoff in retirement.

This is a losing game. If we give up energy today, trading time for money, doing what we hate to save dollars, and harm our health (my kidneys), we lose. If we let society design our lives or external factors…we lose.

Wealth is an intrinsic game of living the life we love, knowing how we can create value consistent with increasing our energy and being able to live wealthy along the way.

When you design a game worth playing, you win. Just because you have a great and clear vision doesn’t mean everything goes according to plan or that there won’t be difficulty; it is just that the vision is greater than any problem you may face. And that it feels miraculous when there is enough clarity of what you are doing and why you are doing it that the God will conspire in your favor.

That doesn’t mean everything is always a yes; often, those who win the most get more no’s. They are just okay with a no because they ask for what they want more often. They value themselves enough to ask. Yes, they can live with a no because it is how they grow, learn, and remain resourceful.

Pain and turbulence can help us adjust and course correct. In some of my most difficult years, I invested the time to understand my values, mission, and vision. It was a course correction, a sometimes harsh nudge to find my direction.

Healing my kidneys showed me the importance of being resourceful of asking for support. I didn’t know what to do, but Debra and Regan did. They helped me to heal something most would say is impossible.

But miracles happen when we learn to listen, when we are willing to receive, and when we know what we want and go for it. When we do whatever it takes to get the result. Worry won’t help. Complaining won’t get you there.

Yes, my kidneys are much better, and so is my life. It isn’t perfect. There are days when everything is in flow and other times when it feels a bit slower. But it is in the moments when things aren’t going perfect that my firm creates something of more value.

February was the first month in years without someone paying for a Cash Cabin immersion. This led to the creation of the Deep Dive Discovery and Report of Findings process, giving substantial value to those considering a Cash Cabin or joining our Multiplier community.

Taking a few years to consider my next chapter, the next steps and understanding the model I can dedicate my life to has created my Win, Then Play game. By designing a game worth playing, I’ve already won. No more playing not to lose or playing to win, I’ve already won.

Simply listening to my intuition (or, more accurately, God’s plan, my divine purpose), has transformed my life and business.

There was a knowing to hire Dan Martell, unveiling how to solve the puzzle of greater reach and reputation. He has shown me how to leverage video and create a media company, something my Creative Director told me about back in 2017 (before I was ready).

This is a way to help more people by leveraging education with entertainment to deliver a critical message of being financially fit, independent, and free. Showing people how to make more money, keep more of the money they make, and grow their money (through Investor DNA), and multiply their results.

I’m a pro on stage as a speaker and as an author but fairly amateur on video. But that is changing. I’m meeting with my friends and clients who have a massive following and impact online. I’ll have a brilliant Creative Director starting soon. I’ve already hired a video director and writing director and in the first month am having more fun, making progress, and am excited about the future.

Knowing the vision, I’m more resourceful. Just like solving kidney disease, now it is time to initiate a movement of the Producer Revolution where people create more value than they consume and defeat the mental disease of the Consumer Condition.

I’m ready and willing to lead, to do what it takes to learn and to live my dream of helping create a lasting legacy for millions of families, giving entrepreneurs the tools to achieve financial independence, and changing the way the game of business is played.

Co-creation, delegation, and collaboration. To live in adherence to the principles of prosperity and solve the productivity conundrum where work overshadows family and fitness—creating more freedom today while being prepared for the future.

This is a game of value creation and unlocking value in each person I reach. To understand that you are your greatest asset and the more you grow, the more wealth will be created as a by-product. The lessons of 2022 and 2023 prepared me, painful as they may have been.

What are you facing?
What are your wins and lessons?
To borrow a concept from my friend Liz Hartke, what’s your “Big Next”—your divine calling that’s pressing on your heart now?
Are you listening to your intuition?

Know this: You are not alone.

You can find the money to buy back your time, increase your skills, unlock your value, and live a life you love. Life ebbs and flows. We have ups and downs, but you don’t have to suffer. You don’t have to hide.

Isolation is a trap of scarcity. Hard work alone will not save you. Prosperity is not a do-it-yourself game or one of perfection. You can be more resourceful when you stop holding so tight to your resources.

Invest in you. In your skills. In your Soul Purpose.

It begins with awareness.

I am willing to work obsessively when aligned with my Soul Purpose. If it isn’t my Soul Purpose, I can’t force it. Soul Purpose is a game of flow.

Soul Purpose is the most expressed, value-creation-guided version of you. Not someone else’s plan, not someone else’s model, not through manipulation or the promise of money, but in the way you can win before you begin.

No matter where you are today. No matter what life brings your way, you’ve got this. You can do this… if you are honest. If you are vulnerable with peers and mentors, you can grow.

What is working for you, and what would you like to be different?

It was tough to remove myself from a company I started. But it opened the possibility of asking: now that I have experienced what I have, and know what I now know, and have space, what could I dedicate my life to? What do I want? How can I create the most value? How can I live my values of vulnerability, growth, Soul Purpose, connection, and value creation? Who do I want to work with, and how can I help them grow? How can we have fun and be creative? What impact could we make together? What is worth my time? What do I want to learn, and how do I want to create value?

If you are tired, maybe you are in the wrong business or business model. If you feel exhausted, maybe you are trying to do too much on your own.

In November, I was ready to hire some Cash Flow Catalysts to connect with our book buyers, Instagram followers, and those subscribing to our newsletter. Before I even wrote the ad, Mike Morelli reached out to me asking if I was hiring. He brought Alex to us within a month as well.

This is the inverse paranoia: knowing that God is conspiring for you. Sometimes, it is so you can win, and sometimes, it is so you can learn. Either way, it is happening for you, it is in your favor.

Knowing it was time to hire created the power of intention. Knowing exactly what I wanted and what was next to grow our impact.

Talent without a model won’t work.

What are you doing, and why are you doing it?

A model without talent can work, but may not be as consequential. So, develop your talent, the talent that matters to fulfill your vision and mission.

The crossroads of comedy and education, entertainment and transformation have required substantial work. Coaches, rehearsals, daily dedication and commitment. But it is worth it. I am willing to do the work because it speaks to and nourishes my soul. It takes time. Initially, my net worth has declined, but my assets have grown. My human life value assets. My ability to create value and know my vision. Rather than chase net worth, I have dedicated my life to being of more value. Being more committed to increasing my skills than my savings. Yet, it isn’t an either/or. It just takes time.

Developing a new model, building a new business, or removing what no longer belongs can impact your balance sheet and income statement. But it is short-sighted to try to scrimp your way to wealth or boost savings at the expense of building a team, growing your skills, or funding your vision.

It can be difficult to take the leap, to go all in, or to temporarily see your bank balance decline. This is what happens when you bet on yourself. This is what it takes to build something great. It doesn’t always require your time, your money or even your ability. But it does require you to know your win, learn along the way, and find something you can dedicate your life to. The thing that brings out the best of who you are.

Your Soul Purpose may seem risky to others, but it is the ultimate inevitability. No evidence may exist in the market because this is innovation and invention. The inner game of wealth. The inner knowing.

As I have admitted, it isn’t always easy. Our thoughts get hijacked when we resist our lessons, delay conversations, and complain instead of creating. Listen to your intuition and have the courage to speak your vision into existence. Be willing to be bold. Call your shot. Leverage the rhetoric of materializing your thoughts into action, your action into a new reality.

It may require you to have difficult conversations. Again, your vision will require stewardship. The greater the vision, the greater the potential conflict and challenge. Sloppiness is expensive, and stewardship is a muscle that you grow as you build.

Vision is the rarest commodity on earth. It moves, it inspires, and it catalyzes action. Can you overcome any worry, fear, and mistake and create a vision greater than any problem you face?

If you can, you create your future. You unlock hidden wealth. You create value for yourself, those on your team, and the people you serve.

This is the game of wealth. Are you ready to play?