I Am a Comeback: Mark Jennison's Powerful Story

This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now here's your host, Brandon Brittingham. Hey, everybody, let me tell you about my good friend, Carson Hurlene. The Wake Up to Wealth podcast is proud to be sponsored by Carson. Carson helped me build my family banking system. What I've seen Carson do for people, it gives them back their peace of mind. If you want to get your mind and your money right, email my good friend Carson at Carson at themoneymultiplier.com to learn how you can become your own bank today, like I have. Hey, what's up, everybody? We are back with another episode of Wake Up to Wealth. And man, I have to just say thank you guys so much. We just recently were number one again for investing on Apple podcasts in front of some of the biggest shows in the world. You guys, we cracked the top 20 in business and we were in the top 100 of all podcasts in Apple. So I cannot thank all of you so much. I can't thank you guys enough for the support you've had for the show. You know, you guys leaving us reviews, subscribing, really supporting us, man. I appreciate it. I appreciate all the feedback of you guys reaching out, saying how this show helped you, how it educated you on money, it helps you on mindset, all those things. And it's just a testament to you can have the odds against you and still win because we are, we compete with people that have millions and millions of dollars of budgets. We're doing this podcast in my office with some basic equipment. And the message to me is always what mattered. And you guys have shown as a testament that that's what matters. So I really greatly appreciate everything. And today, super excited up and trying to get Mark on the podcast for a while. Mark Jensen is here today from I am a comeback. What's up, brother? Now, much better. Thanks for having me, bro. You just had some really, really important messages. All that matters. It doesn't matter what medium you're in. That's all that really matters. So what's pretty cool is I met Mark years ago and we've become homies and I've been a privilege to get in, see his community, see what he does. I've had the privilege to speak to his folks before. And I saw this guy speak. Gosh, you know, it's probably three years ago now. And. Very rarely do I sit in a room and someone starts speaking and I'm like completely like shut the fuck up and listen. And this guy told his story and I just it just blew me away. And then I had the privilege to go to a mastermind with him in Mexico. Got to know him and his wife and was just really captivated by his story, what he's done and what he's built. So I'm super excited to have him on today and kind of talk about some pretty cool things. So Mark, for those that my audience that might not know you, tell us who you are and what you do. All right, man. So number one, thanks for having me on to your guys. I appreciate it, man. This is super awesome. Like you just said, man, we've been homies for years and I'm probably, I probably should be a better homie and reach out more. I'm a kind of quiet guy. But anyways, I'm the founder and creator of I'm a comeback. Why that's important is because 10 years ago I was eating out of a dumpster. Right. 10 years, like literally July 27th. We're filming this on the 19th, July, 2017, 2015. I was eating out of a dumpster. I didn't have enough money to feed my kids. I didn't even was even able to see my kid. I'll get to that here. I'm in a little bit, but the reality is, man, what I've done is I created not only just an alternative, but in my opinion, the alternative for high performing business owners, entrepreneurs, high level executives, men who want to win inside of their life or struggling with alcohol or pornography or some sort of habit and we've been able to help. It's really cool. You know, money's great. I know we're going to talk about money. Been able to make a lot of money, but I've made a lot of impact, right? I've helped almost just under 14,000 people come through my program so far. And these are high level people. These are the reach. These I've been able to reach the unreachable, right? Which has been pretty cool. So I believe it's a calling by God. So yeah, man, what I do is I, um, I'm a coach, man. And I'd like to say I'm not just a coach. I've been around this game for eight years. I've seen a lot of people come and go. And like you said, the message is the most important thing. I've been running the same message since I decided to quit drinking, which was this. You're not weak. You're not disease. You're not powerless. Okay. And that message has just resonated with so many people because I believe that everything that we do is a choice. I believe everything inside of our life, we have the ability to make a choice and decision to win and pivot at whatever time. So yeah, man, that's what I do, man. I just, I, you give me the microphone. I change lives. So, um, I really like to go inside the mindset of, right? Like you were, I mean, call it what it is. You're an addict, right? And yeah. Right. Yeah. My is a safe for me to say that. So yeah, you can call it whatever you want. As you know, my friend, but I don't ever use this. And I think what makes it so cool, right? You can be whoever you want to be. And like for me, brother, I never wanted to be labeled an addict, but I was obsessed. Right. So my life, just like you're obsessed in certain areas of your life. I mean, your gym, your transformation, right? You're, you're, you're business, your podcast, you're obsessed with it. So for me, man, um, addiction was a word that I think society wanted to label me. Yeah, bro. I drank 50 to 60 drinks a day. Okay. Yeah. Snorting, snorting cocaine all day. Yeah. Shot heroin or took pills to go to sleep, but I would never believe that I was, I was fucked. Right. I didn't, I just thought that's what you do. And so there was an obsession that I've had and I believe that anybody out there who's even struggling with some of this stuff, where the struggle gets lost is the fact that they started thinking there's something wrong with them instead of realizing that the gift you have is being addicted, addicted to winning. Right. But if you're doing it the wrong way, you're fucked. So I'm glad you said that because this is where I wanted to go. So how, you know, walk us through this, like, how did you go from where you were, which was a really bad, dark place to like, I'm going to get my shit together because it like, it sounds good, right? But to go from the transformation that you went through, it's just, I mean, that's just hard, bro. Right. Like that's just, that is, that is by no means is that normal. And I know you've helped a lot of people go through this transition. But like, where did you go mentally? Like, how did you forge yourself through this shit? Yeah, man, this is actually, this is a great question because a lot of people always want to know the how, right? But nobody wants to understand what it felt like or what it had to do to get there. They want to know the step, you know, one, two, three, how do I get there? What they found realizes what it takes and who you have to become inside of this thing. So let me just preface this with a, with a little bit of a story, right? So I had seven major relapses in my life and I call them seven. I probably had tens of thousand micros, right? Like, come Monday, I'm done. I promise God take this when I'm done. But, you know, but those don't really mean shit. But seven major ones that I could count back to where something catastrophic could happen, right? Divorce, lose my business, friends dying, family dying, losing my son, all of this stuff, right? So I counted it down to seven, which is interesting because it's biblical, right? And everything inside of my company is just come back seven and seven always shows up. But the final straw that broke the camel's back, right? It wasn't the fact that I lost my business, you know, from 27 to 33, I made millions and millions of dollars and that sucked. But it wasn't bottom. And I don't think I ever hit rock bottom because I think bottom for me would be death because I just wanted to win so bad. I was just going the wrong way. But here's what it is. OK. So. June 11th of 2015, I was selling cars. OK. And I lost everything from previous previous issues that I had. And I had to go sell cars. I was really, really good at it. But what happened over time, I started in a certain November, fast forwarded to June. I was top 1%, knocking out 35, 40 cars a month, just really crushing it. And I started leaving these Saturday morning meetings with three, four, five thousand dollars cash, right? I was sober with no plan. I hate the word sober, but I was sober with no plan. And I thought I was doing the right thing. But slowly what happened is I just slid back into the stuff that people do, right? So I leave the meeting with cash, even though I'd already lost my company, you know, millions of dollars, the IRS, we're not even talking about that dark part of my story yet. We're just going to talk about the mindset. As things were unraveling, I just I was working and working, working. The funny what happened is it caught up to me. I went back to the same old shit, right? I might be living externally like a winner. I might be selling a ton of cars, making twenty seven, forty five, thirty two thousand dollars a month, crushing it. And as fast I make it, it's going to pay back bills and shit that I had. But I started doing the things that got me here. And that's what people do, right? So I just went back to the back to the bars, back to doing drugs, back to partying. And although I could still work, I found this I found this thing inside of me, right? I found this gear, probably like what you have. It was the it was the addictive personality or the obsessed personality. And I could figure out how to be two people. But what happened is I was running two ways, OK? One to good, one to bad. And they just got so far away that finally on June 11th, two thousand and fifteen, my birthday, I'm sorry, yeah, June 10th is my birthday. And I didn't show up for work on the 11th and the car dealership that I was working for sent out like a search party to find me. Lo and behold, they find me drunk at a bar, middle of the day in a demo car that they gave me completely fricking shit face, right? And they do drugs and they bring me back in, check this out. So they go send the porter to come get me. The porter's like, bro, you know, he's all upset because he knew that I was like a good dude and they bring me down to the dealership and they're like, hey, basically you take help, OK, or you're fucked. Right. Or get out of our world. Dude, I didn't want help, but I also didn't want to not have my job. So I willingly took the help that they offered. They called the rehab facility. They got me into that bed. He paid more cash. The owner of the dealership to get me in the bed. I went out that night and got completely blitzed. They put they put security around me to make sure that I would go there. And I went in, man, and I blew a point three six seven the following morning. Point three, six, seven failed everything on the drug test, except for marijuana. Right. That's where my life was. And I'm going to share I'm going to keep going. It's a little bit of a long story. And what happened right? And was I went through it was like, I think 21 days or something like that, however long it was. And I went through the first six days were hell. I was aggressive. I was on steroids, right? I was really, really good shape. Super fucking crazy. They put me into this detox, like I said, three, six, seven. And I went in there and I remember this kid was coloring, right? He must have been in there for, I don't know, whatever, say, hey, man, you want to color and I fucking rip my shirt off like the Hulk, flip the table over. And then they just put me down for six days. Yeah. And inside of those six days, I pretty much slept. And they finally moved me to my room to be able to take up, to be able to take a shower. That's all I wanted. I remember because I was high risk, I'm standing there, right? And there's this orderly with flame tattoos on his head to my left, like a nurse. There's another guy who's naked in this community bathroom. And my life, so my life had become, yeah, I made millions of dollars. And here I am, right? And I'm just fucking angry. So I don't want to look at this guy because I want to fight him. And I don't want to look at this guy because it's dicks hanging out. So I'm just like, I'm forced to, right? Yeah, I'm forced to look into the mirror, right? And what I saw was a monster. The vein beating right on my head, my heart. I was beat red. It looked like a red version of the Incredible Hulk. And I looked into this mirror and I'm like, dude, you're fucking better than this. Like what's wrong? I start talking, right? What's wrong with you? Stop fucking lying. That's what I said, right? And in that moment, something switched. OK, when I said stop fucking lying. Now, I'd love to tell everybody listening that my story ended there, but it didn't. I went through the rest of the time, right? It's laying in a piss soaked stained plastic bed. Rune who has scabies, like with these people that I don't want to be around, pissed off, can you hang it, anger, anger? Finally, they let me out on July 3rd. OK, and as like I said, a long story, but my life's crazy. They let me out on July 3rd against medical attention. Basically, what I did was I sold myself out of there because I didn't want to be there. And I think looking back, God probably wanted me to do this. But I got out July 3rd. They sent the car dealership, sent the guy to come get me. They they bring the car, they show up, they hand me 400 bucks cash. They say, you look good. We'll see you on Monday. Well, I decided that I wanted to go eat. Well, hey, actually, there's a very important part of the story. I don't know if you know this. So here I've been. I've been a rehab. I hadn't seen my son. I'm a piece of shit. Fucking dad. I'm a loser. This is all things I'm feeling. I owe everybody money. I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed. I hate my life. I pick up the phone. I call my my son's mother and I say, hey, I'm out of rehab. I'll love to see Phoenix. And she's like, you can't. We're in Chicago. So I pick up my phone and I call my one friend who does a drink, who's a bodybuilder. Right. And I'm like, hey, bro, I just want to see what you're doing. He's like, hey, I'm down at Sunset Park swimming. Why don't you come down here? Your son is here. Phoenix is here. Oh, no shit. So he's. Yeah, bro. So his mom lied to me. No, I didn't know that. I never heard this before. Yeah. Yeah. So so she lied to me, right? And what I could have done, bro, I could have went down to Sunset Park. Yeah. I could have went there, right? This is a very important part of my life. OK. Because sometimes what I want people to know is I explain my story is sometimes the decision you make is the wrong decision. But what you do after the decision backs up who you can become. And I'm looking back and I'm so glad that I didn't go there. OK. Because what happened was I made a different route. I went and I said, I need to get some food. So I went to this little bar and sat down and worked at cheeseburger and a Red Bull. Real healthy because I've been eating shitty food right when I was inside the rehab. And I'm sitting there and in walks this guy. He's just walking. It's like, all right, man. Happy Fourth of July tomorrow. Who wants a shot? And I'm like, oh, man, I just got a rehab. I'm like, fuck it. Give me one. Six hours, bro. Oh, man. Six hours removed. Yeah. OK. So you're asking the mindset that I went. So then what happened is out of all the places, I'm like, well, I'm continued a lot. I got out. I'm not even ashamed. I'm just having fun. I'm like, fuck it. I already did this. I'm going all the way out. I ended up going to a to a to a bar where the whole dealership that put me in rehab was having a party that nobody told me about. Because they didn't want me to come to the bar. And I walk into this in completely blitzed, completely high as fuck. And let and everyone's like, I walk in and the room stopped. Right. I went on. They fired me. They were pissed off. Everyone hated me. OK. I'm one of the worst nine day bender alive. Jumped on a plane, flew down to Florida. My brother put me put me there to go down by my mom. He's like, dude, you're a loser. We fucking hate you. Can't do this, right? And there's a lot to it. I want to spare you guys the whole story. It's a great story. But I went down to Florida, man. And this was in this was some midtime July. You know, I fly down there, no shower, completely scummy. I didn't shower for nine days. I'm rocking back and forth, feeling like a scumbag. Get off the plane. My mom takes me directly to liquor store. I get a bottle of a bottle of booze, right? Rumpleman's. I love rumpleman's. And I just start just fucking down in it so I could feel better. So I was so sick. I do that for three or four days. And this is super important for the people to hear like, this is where my life was. And I'm skipping over a ton of steps, the intensity, the energy. You know, people like, dude, this guy's an addict. He's no, man, I just fucking this how I operated. So finally, I realized I needed to get a get a job, right? And I'm battling back and forth like a real bitch. I'm calling my son's mother back then. I'm like, hey, I want to talk to him. I want to talk. She's not letting me. She texts me back. Hey, the world's better off without you. Why don't you kill yourself? Why don't you write the rights off to yourself? Is as a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, here's a here's some documents that we're going to prepare for from the lawyer. Just get fucking rid of him. You don't deserve him. He doesn't need to. And Brandon, I probably never told you this, but I remember I'm sitting there and I was contemplating as tears are weeping down on this piece of paper. I had a pen and I was going to write it. I set it down and I ended up going. I'm like, no, I'm going to go to the bar right of all places. I didn't do it. And I went to the bar and I applied for a job as a valet parker. OK, I'm like, well, fuck it, dude, I'm just going to drink beer, live in Florida, make some cash. Didn't matter how many millions of dollars. Right. He was like, yeah, you could start. Right. So long story short, I grab a beer, I go out to the ocean because it's right on the beach and I sit down. I'm drinking the beer and I'm looking out at the sky and the clouds and the sky, the oceans like beating against the sand. It's beautiful. Right. It's pink. It's blue. And I hear this voice all of a sudden that says, are you ready to listen to me now? And I stood up. I've done a lot of drugs. I stood up and I answer audibly. I'm like, fuck, yeah, I am. But there was nobody. Yeah. So I ended up going and I had no money completely. We don't have enough time for my entire story, but you asked where I went. I drank all the way home. I went back to the car dealership. I drank a liter of vodka. I put on the largest line display of my life to get an opportunity. OK. And they said, yeah, we fucking hate you. You can start on Monday. We hate you. They gave me the hardest parameters ever. You have to be in a rehab. You have to be in a recovery program. You have to work bell to bell. You don't get to leave. You can't drive a car. All of your money has to be gated. They have to take care of it. But if you want to be or show the world how good you are, no lineups, no leads, no CRM, nothing. You fucking prove it. They made it so difficult on me. I walked into that car dealership July 27th, 2015, without a pair of shoes and no money. I had nothing and I can walk it in this place, man. And for the first three, four days. Well, that was a Wednesday. So the first three days, I didn't sell a thing. I didn't even know if I could do it. I was shaking. I was convulsing. My life was at the bottom. I couldn't see my son. I didn't even have a cell phone. I didn't even fucking afford a cell phone. And I picked up the phone on the fourth day. I picked up the landline and I opened up the white pages. And I started cold calling everyone in my town. I started cold calling 200 people a day. You want to know where I'm going, bro? I made a decision in that moment. I didn't know what the decision made like, but I knew one thing. My fucking son deserved a better opportunity than I could ever have in my life. My son needed me no matter what. And I didn't set out to do what I did, but I know that my life wasn't working and was burned down to the fucking ground. And I was going to do whatever it took to get back. And what happened over time, right? I did what they said, but not only did I do what they said, I did it in spite of them because I didn't give a fuck about them. I wanted to win for me. And over time, I felt this thing, right? I felt the energy and I got stronger and I got stronger and I got stronger. And where I went mentally, bro, to be able to do this thing was it was every day. Three a.m. to midnight, self-development, grinding, listening to books, writing, journaling, repetition. I would get out a notebook, bro, and I was feeling like a fucking pussy. And I'll write down, I'm a champion, I'm a champion, I'm a champion, I'm a champion. Thousands of times until I could start believing this thing. I had no proof. I had no evidence. I just willed my way to do it. And then I learned up a high income skill, which I was I was good at sales, but I decided I wanted to be great at sales. OK, so what I did, man, was I went to this place that was so fucking dark. My mom didn't like me. My dad didn't like me. My brother didn't like me. Everybody hated me. I owed millions of dollars to the IRS. My back was up against the fucking wall. I owed all the creditors, every creditor out there, but I made a decision. I'm not filing bankruptcy. I'm going to fucking do what I have to do to pay this back. I'm going to work harder than anybody else. And I showed up first one in, last one out every single day with an energy and intensity that was unmatched by anybody else. And what I did, though, bro, I would stare because I couldn't see my son. I would stare at pictures of him. Literally stare at the pictures of him. That's it. And I mean, there's no there's nothing calm. There's nothing complex about when you decide you want to win. It wasn't about giving up alcohol. It was about finally becoming who I know I could be. Right. And then every fucking day, there's no max volume on intensity. I would turn it up. I would turn it up. I would turn it up. I'm doing it right now in my life right now. But that's it right there. Hey, are you ready to take the next step towards home ownership at responsive mortgage, the guys that we trust? They make the process simple and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a first time home buyer or looking to refinance, their expert team is to help guide you every step of the way with competitive rates and personalized solutions. They find the right mortgage fit for you. Visit responsivemortgage.com today and let them help lead you home. And these guys are responsive mortgage and Mike Benton are my friends and they're a sponsor of the show. So we trust them. Reach out to them for all your mortgage needs. Tell my son, yeah. I wanted people to hear it because I think that it's why this is important is because there's people who not to stereotype anything, but, you know, there's people that are listening right now that you have better opportunity, better everything than say, a me or you, right? And you're squandering it or when shit gets tight or when shit gets tough, you fold. And, you know, I just always think, you know, if I can do it, you can do it. And you're a prime example of. Literally, if we took bets on you when you were at that stage in your life of where you're going to be, like that's like fucking 10 million to one odds. I would have paid out well, right? And I think and I wanted I wanted people to share it just because I know you're I know a lot of those things that you talked about. And I know the intensity of how you move and run now. And I know the the effects that it's had on so many people. I just want people to hear this is that people there's this cliche around mindset, but literally is fucking that's what it is. Right. I mean, that at the end of the day is what it is. You just went through, you know, pretty much rock bottom on your deathbed. You'd lost everything. Now, let's let's go to a cool part of the story. At some point, you got this calling for I am a comeback. Right. Do you know, tell us like when when was that? Right. And again, so I'm a believer of this shit is that you're you got put through this. And I believe this of the shit that I've been put through in my life. You got put through this for a higher calling. And the higher calling probably was I am a comeback. Like, when did you when did you feel that or see that? And start to make that happen? And and just go into go into a little bit of detail of like what what I am a comeback is and what it's become. Yeah, sure. So first and foremost, I'm a comeback. It's a statement. It's a belief. It's an identity. It's a principle of power that once you accept it, you never let go over. You're going to win no matter what. I'm going to start with that. Right. It's just about redemption. And I like you will never fucking quit. And the people that listen to you, hopefully the inspiration they're getting from guys like you and I is that we're just regular old dudes who just refused to lose. Thanks. That's it. Right. Your vehicle is is all the stuff that you do real estate and money and all the stuff. My vehicle is clearly you can hear me speaking changing fucking lives. Right. And I do it my way. I don't I don't go on stages. I do it my way, the slow way, the right way. Now, I want to what I will share with you is this. So remember, I was selling cars and I got really, really good at selling cars. By the way, even though I missed those few months inside of the dealership that first year, I still was the number one dealer. The number one salesman in the entire group. There was like 17 guys or 17 stores at that time. And I finished number one and the number two guy got a Rolex. And I believe what I got was I had to pay back my rehab. Right. And I was number one. They made me pay back. So what happened though is I needed to make some cash. So this is the part that people should listen to. Right. I needed to make some cash. So about four, five, six months into no longer drinking and building what's now known as the comeback seven. I'm like, dude, I'm never going to get back to zero. We're just selling cars. I've got to figure out a way to create some cash. So I created a built an online company. You didn't know anything about it, right? But I saw this Facebook thing and maybe I could do something here. And I created a company called Genesis Enterprises and I created one offer. 30 and 30, how to sell 30 cars in 30 days to make six figures a year as an automobile salesman took off. Right. And then what I did was I literally coached the people. I showed them how to do it, started getting the results because it's relatively easy if you just wake the fuck up. And what happened is the clients that were selling cars didn't want to actually learn how to sell cars. They wanted to know how I got sober, even though I don't like the word. They want to know how I overcame all the stuff that I had to overcome. So I did this for like from 2016 all the way to 2018. But all I could see was this brand in my mind. That's all I could see is I got stronger and it got stronger and it got stronger. It didn't exist, but it existed in my mind. End of December, 2018, I was I built a little recurring revenue group up. I was doing forty seven thousand a month recurring, which is pretty good, right? I wouldn't call that one by one. Yeah, it was forty seven. Well, comparative to where I'm at right now at the time, especially for a startup, forty seven thousand a month. Yeah, a hundred percent, dude. I was just all by the way, anybody on here. I didn't know how to do funnels. I didn't know how to do any of the shit. I had a cell phone and all I did was a cell phone, found a problem when I call on a period that's so let's let's let's make a point about this. You know, I think one of the biggest struggles that people have in general is they think they need a bunch of fucking information and you need to, you know, when you're ready. You know, this is just a this is a point that you just made that I think is just very important that people need to listen to, like just go fucking out and execute, right? Like, you know, you're whatever you're going to suck, right? Like so at this point in my life, I'm going speaking on stages. I'm speaking in stadiums and I was speaking in front of five people. And like the other day, because it happens, right? I just I got my ass kicked like a couple of days in a row and I was sitting at home before I go to bed. And I and I pulled up a video of one of the first times I ever spoke. And I was like, Jesus Christ, dude, I was fucking bad. But I had the courage to get on stage when I was bad, right? And so to your point, you know, you had the courage of like, I don't know shit about the Internet. I don't know shit about an offer. I don't know shit about a funnel. I know that I'm good at this. I know I have a skill set and I just put it together. I just the reason why I'm saying this to you is that I have people probably just like you that reach out to me all the time. And they're like, yeah, I want to do this when I'm going to do this when I'm going to start this when I'm going to, you know, and it's just like, man, you just you just got a fucking point and shoot, dude. When I get here, I'll do this when the circumstances are all right. Now, do this, but it's never right. And I think, you know, to touch base on that, I think what stops a lot of people is they actually think that people saying that like we're saying that are actually lying. They don't think we're lying, right? But I think they think we have some sort of secret because I used to think the same thing like, wow, there's no way. But the reality is, bro, this is how it works. It's one foot in front of the other every single day, even when it's not working. That's it. It's it's undefeated. It's it's undefeated. That's it. And you're going to get smoked. You're going to get punched in the mouth. You're going to fall down. And if you just refute, once you make a decision to win out, whatever you're going to win in your life, it's not it's not if it's just when. Right. Just when. And it may take may take me like my plans, build a nine figure company. And I thought I would do it by 45. I didn't. I have not been able to do it. Right. I've only been able to do 30 million bucks, but that's that's pretty decent. Right. I want to be able to pay. I've only been able to do 30 million bucks. I want to do a hundred though. Right. That's the number. Yeah. I want to share one of the mistakes that I've made that I think people should never do, though. I've made this mistake a couple of times in my life. I'm very spiritually led. So I think that I need to be in alignment with the assignment all the time. So that $47,000 a month business that we were talking about at the end of December, I picked up the phone I called every client that I had. And I said, guys, I can't take money from you anymore because I don't want to talk about, which is stupid as fuck. Right. I don't want to talk about the things we're talking about. So you can keep all my content. And I shut that $47,000 off. The 40,000, $47,000 are stream off. And I started, I'm a comeback. I had the wrong. I had a t-shirt with the wrong logo. I had a zoom call. Right. And I had a notebook and I wanted to change lives. And by the way, I also want to make it 47,000 to I only had three people in role in the first month in January and only made three thousand fucking dollars. Yeah, I still owe the IRS. I still owed all these people money, but I knew where I was going. I'll share some numbers for you real quick. Dude, I got I just can't I'm going to make a point on that. This is again, I think this is so powerful because. I've made this pivot multiple times in my life, too, where I had gotten really good at something and I was making a ton of money. And I knew that the journey was bigger or the vision was bigger. And I pivoted from something that did really fucking well. And the reason why I want to mention this is because. One of the things that I think entrepreneurs really they fail. Is not being able to pivot their identity, right? So you just gave an example of your identity was you were a coach making forty seven thousand dollars a month, right? A recurring revenue, but you were willing to pivot your identity to say, I'm going to be something bigger. And this makes me think a couple of months ago, I was sitting in a room with the founder of Netflix and he's one of the most profound things he ever said. That is stuck with me. As he said, we were in the early stages of Netflix. Ninety nine percent of our revenue was selling DVDs. And we knew that that was not a viable business. And we made the decision and we pivoted overnight to go to a subscription model when ninety nine percent of our revenue was DVDs. Then they pivoted from. Subscription DVDs to produce their own content. Well, how the fuck did that work out? So fucking great, right? And but but the point I'm making to you is you got to have the fucking balls and the fucking internal fortitude when you feel that the vision is bigger. And you know that the hot the call the calling is bigger to make that decision, which you did. I just wanted to highlight that because I think this is a place where a lot of entrepreneurs get stuck and they're unwilling to pivot because they're scared to, you know, it's like I'm in the plane, but it's like, you got to land that motherfucker because you're about to hop on a private jet. Yeah. And I think so. So the word that I use is knowing, right? I just know where I'm going. Period. Like there's a there's a knowing. And I've tried even since we've been friends, I've deviated many different paths inside of Ima comeback, right? I try to be this business coach. I can do relationship coaching, which all things I do on the inside, because I can do it. But the world doesn't want that from me. The world wants me to be able to share the story and show them how to wake the fuck up from drinking too much. And every time I try to run from that, my company starts hurting. My bank account starts hurting. My energy starts hurting. I fall down. And what's interesting, though, is I never stop looking for what's next. OK, I'm always continuously looking, but it's not always about what's next. It's about improving upon the knowing that you have. So I would love for your people out there that are doing this like they have the gut. They have an intuition. Everybody knows how they want their life to look. Are they willing to go do that? That's the question. Like if they believe it and they could see it, even if they're thinking about it, most likely it's supposed to happen, not even most likely. Like it's supposed to happen. Is it do you have the fucking balls, like you said, to go do it? And most people don't. And that's what's so difficult about about watching people walk around is wandering generalities and mediocre mindsets, right? When they they're just one small tweak away from doing bigger things than me. Yeah, dude, it's you hit on another point, man. You're always, you know, what a lot of people don't think or realize is that you're closer than you think, dear to me. But you're just willing. And here's the thing, you know, like stopping. You're closer than you think and stopping and going backwards versus just forging and pushing through like you're close to that wall. And you're about to knock that motherfucker down, but then you tap out. And then another thing that I that I truly believe in, right? So like me and you are the one percent of the one percent of just our ability to fucking get shit done and just fuck it, right? And what I think, if you're listening to this, I want you to understand that like when you're standing in the shit and it's like, man, this fucking I'm getting hit and I want to fucking fold and I want to just curl up in a blanket and cry. Anybody you compete with, that's where they stop. They will fucking stop. And if you just like you said earlier, if you just put another foot in front of the other and you're just willing to keep going, you'll beat them by fucking attrition, dude. Like no question about it, you'll beat them by attrition. So we deviated off a little bit, but you said some shit that gets me fired up. Yeah, no, this is great. I love what we're going. This we can always need more of these calls later. But here's what I know. OK, that it doesn't just stop when like what you just mentioned happens over and over and over at every level. Right. It just it gets and it gets harder. It gets it doesn't get easier, right? But you do get better. And after you've done it once, you've done it twice. You've done it three times, whether it was just figuring out how to make your first thousand dollars extra for some of your people out there. And before you know it, that thousand is now 10,000. And then the 10,000 is now 50,000. Then it's 100,000. But you're dealing with the same problems, which is essentially mediocrity trying to set in and make you think that you don't deserve it or that it's too hard. When we kind of just went through a massive, what a massive pivot right now. Right. We came into Arizona. I had fucking put a house in California, a house in Arizona, a house Wisconsin's all over the place, burning through about a hundred, one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars of a month of just like shit that we didn't need. But I thought we needed to chase this dream, right? Because I was trying to do something. Yeah, I was able. I built us. I don't know if you know this or not. But we turned around, I built an agency, a marketing agency, and we did three million dollars in seven days. Right. Turned it off. Right. So we turned it on. I'm like, oh, fuck, this is what we need. Right. And then as I was attention was going here, I got hit somewhere else I didn't see. And like you said, this this version of of us that wants to crawl up in a blanket and just fucking cry, by the way, take a minute and feel like shit, but then just get going. Yeah. Right. That's it. It happens to all of us, by the way. Hey, this next segment is brought to you by Paramount Property Tax Appeal. And these are guys that I trust. My good friend, Wes, over there, if you're overpaying for your property taxes, Paramount Property Tax Appeals specializes in helping commercial property owners and homeowners reduce their tax bills. Ensuring that you only pay your fair share. These guys are going to fight for you. And these are the guys that I trust. You can reach my good friend, Wes, their contact information is 310-897-5056 or Wes at PPtaxApple.com. That's Wes at PPtaxApple.com. So if you look at me, you look at Mark, you anybody that you see that successful and you're like, I want to be like them. I want to understand it is seven thirty on the West Coast or, you know, right? It's 10, it's 10 o'clock, 10 and some change here on a Saturday. Right. I'm in the office. There's maybe one or two people in here, right? Mark's up on the West Coast. I'm going to leave here, go crush a workout, work the rest of the fucking day. Like I want you guys to understand, like number one, what it takes. But also we deal with. So I'm the CEO of my company, Mark is to we deal with the worst fucking problems all the time, all the time. And it is not like, oh, man, it's it's like when I go like a week or two and like nothing goes wrong, I'm like, yo, when's it coming? Like when is it coming? You're expecting it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's just part of it. It's just their growth does not exist in comfort ever. You know, that I'll share this, right? So right now as I'm retooling my entire new offer, just read, just rebuilding it from the inside out. I sat my team. I don't know what I'm going to do with him yet, but I sat them on the sidelines because there's an energy and an intensity that my company needs to have to serve at the highest level and they weren't producing it the way that I needed to do it. I didn't like the way it felt. Now I'm going to play a sport. I have to make some hard decisions and most likely let these guys go. And these are people that I love. OK, because they're not they're not getting it done. But what I did before I make that decision, I went back and made sure that it wasn't the problem, it wasn't them. Or that it wasn't the offer. It was them. And it wasn't the offer. And what it is, I went down every day this week because I'm on the West Coast, 3 30 a.m., which is 6 30 on the east. I'm taking sales calls. I'm at 3 30 and I'm working. I'm on the phone till eight o'clock at night on Pacific, which is like 11 there. And I sleep. I go to the gym and before this call, I did a sales call at 6 a.m. Right. So I want it. This is what I want the people to see. Like when you fucking want something. You'll do whatever it takes. And I know that sounds cliche and you can see it on Instagram. But there's a feeling inside that you know you're supposed to have it. You fucking get it no matter what. I don't care if it's 2 30 in the morning. I don't care if it's 2 30 in the afternoon or Sunday. You don't stop. Yeah. So you mentioned, you know, you launched. I'm a comeback was 3000 the first month. You mentioned earlier, you know, you got to 30 billion in revenue. Like what what did that look like? How did how'd you get it from 3,000 to 30 million? Because that's like we left out some in between there. Yeah. Yeah. So the first nine months of I'm a comeback in 2018, I didn't think it was going to work. So I did I did 3000 in January and then September. So January, 2000 and 18, I did 3000 September, 2000 and 18. I did 12,000 a month. That's OK. But that's not 47,000. And that's definitely not going to be that's not going to get it done. OK. So what happened though is I took my son down to Florida. And I'm looking at my Instagram and all of a sudden this woman starts liking all the pictures of my son. There's fucking light. I'm like, what is going on here? Like who is this chick? I'm single at the time. And sorry, she messaged me. We start talking back and forth. And what happened was I started dating Kendra. I'll spare all the details, right? But she came into my wife. We did 12,000. We started dating about the end of September. October, I did 32,000. Same energy, same calls. Nothing changed. All of a sudden I had somebody believing in me. I did 32, 36, 71, 96. So that was the only thing that happened was the right person pushing me. I didn't feel alone anymore. And what happened is I invested in a coach. Yeah. I found it. I didn't pay for any coaching. I found a coach, which was Garrett J. White. He put out this thing called Wake Up Warrior. I'm sorry. Big Money Market Bootcamp. I paid whatever I needed to go learn how he did it. Fast forward. Let me ask a question on this, because this is important. At the time, do you remember what it cost? To get into the room was 5,000. And there's a room of 165 people. And then what he did, though, was he had 22 spots in his office and it was like 25,000 bucks or something like that. And he put the offer and I couldn't fucking get my card up quick enough. Right? Did that stretch you financially at that time? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It did. Well, I just had a couple of good months, right? But the money was still going back to the IRS. Yeah, it was tough. Yeah. So I say that for a reason because very another very important piece of my journey, obviously yours too, is this is again, where I think people fuck up and make the mistake is you'll buy some dumb shit and spend money on some dumb shit. But you won't buy the guide who already has the map and the tools to get you where you need to be because you think it's quote unquote too expensive. And there was times in my life where financially I couldn't afford it or it stretched me or it was uncomfortable. Right? Like right now I've got a billionaire. Guy, your exit is coming for a billion dollars coaching me, right? And one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made in my life is not asking that guy to coach me sooner. Right. And to your point, there's been plenty, plenty of times in my life where it was super fucking uncomfortable. But the ROI on the money I spent was just you can't quantify it to the millions. Right. So I just I want to make a point about that. Yeah, man, it for sure stretched me, man. I'll share another story with you back before I was even like built any of that stuff. Grant Cardone put out I was selling cars and he had this MP3 how to make $250,000 dollars a year as an automobile salesman was $500. I bought it for $500. I didn't have the $500. He was an MP3, right? Yeah, $500 for this thing. The next day he put it on sale for 37 bucks. Right. So I went away to home more day. I would have bought it for 37. Yeah, it didn't matter. I invested into the 500. Just that $500 actually grew my whole entire sales career. Sure. Right. And then it was from there was on and on. And Garrett was Garrett White's the biggest investment that I've ever made in my coaching. Over the years, I think I'm a little over a million dollars in a coaching with him. No, I don't I'm not coached by him anymore, but he taught me a lot about high ticket, big money marketing, how to strategically seduce people to get. I mean, bro, it's like a half a million to be coached by me one on one right now because I've been able to earn the right to do that inside of my space. And so tight on my message. Never would have been able to do that. And why I actually paid him a half a million one time. If I never paid him that I wouldn't be able to learn it. Yeah, when to learn it, when to be able to charge it. Yeah. So, man, it's so much good stuff on this. So when I end the show, I always say, what does wake up to wealth mean to you? But I want to ask a different question because I think this is important. So there's a lot of people that listen to this that probably struggle with some form of addiction. I mean, look, let's let's keep it real. You're successful. You're making a shit ton of money. You know, you start drinking, you start doing shit, you shouldn't do whatever. Or if you come into money, you never had it. It's really easy to get into trouble. The girls start thinking you're a lot cuter. You can buy all the shit you never, you know, you never thought was possible to buy. You can you get access to rooms you didn't have access to, which can get you into some trouble. Just number one, Mark can tell you this is that it's more common than you think if you're struggling with something, right? But for somebody that's out there that's listening and they're dealing with maybe an addiction or an issue, just give them a piece of advice they can walk away with. Yeah, man. So the the words that I was like to give people is the greatest gift, the greatest power that you possess, the ability to choose, right? So you can choose to do something about it, can choose to play the victim. And there's a difference between probably the people that listen to you and somebody who's written off life. If you're someone who's written off life, then you're kind of fucked. I can't help you. That's just the truth, right? I have no advice other than to figure out what's going to make you feel live and then go to work. But I would assume anybody who clicks a link and downloads, wake up to wealth has a desire to make some more money. And those people and what is wealth exactly, right? Well, it isn't just about cash. It isn't just about being rich. It's about the way that you feel it's about who you are. It's about becoming this person you're supposed to be. So the advice I have for all the people is number one, when you get up, you make one choice. We've already talked about it. You go forward, you go forward, you go forward. But you make a choice and a decision to look at not where you like all these things that have been hurting you, all the things that you've been doing. You're disciplined already. You're just disciplined the wrong way. OK, so think about these people who have a struggle. I'm vaping too much, right? I'm watching too much doom scrolling. That's no different than drinking. It's the same shit. It's the same action. You make a decision and you make a choice that you're no longer going to do this. You want to be controlled by nothing. And then you find a coach, right? Whether it's me, whether it's you, whether it's someone free on YouTube, I don't care, but someone has the life that you want. And what you need to recognize is you're not broke, right? You're not broken, you're not busted, you're not discussed. You might be down, but you're not out. And if you count yourself out, you're fucked and you will never count yourself out. Go listen to the re-listen to the things I've said. Or go check out some of my content that I put out there. By no means should I be here. Yeah, no doubt. Nobody would have ever. There's just no I should be dead. Yeah, most of the people that I loved are dead from what we did, right? By no means should I ever be this person. But you could never tell me that I didn't deserve it. And in the moments when you think you don't deserve it, where people are telling you, oh, you're not good enough or, oh, you can't do this. You're hanging around fucking losers. You need to just know who you are. And you probably don't know who you are yet because you haven't allowed yourself to just say, hey, this is what I'm becoming. If you're hiding in the pain, you're drinking at night, you're doing drugs, you know, all this shit, no one's forcing you to do it. Nobody like nobody can make you fucking put a drink in your mouth. They just can't. Once you make the choice that you're going to win, don't let off the gas. Yeah, and I'll end it with this. So I've had the privilege of meeting a bunch of guys that have been through your program that you have helped. And it's wild because I communicate. You know, I talk to a lot of these guys, you know, actually kind of frequently. And it's wild the other day. Like in Facebook, memory is one of your guys, like a picture of them came up. And I was like, holy shit, dude, like that's not even the same person. Like physically, they look better, you know, mentally, how they they're carrying their self is better. And like you see a picture of them like, yeah, that was pre I am a comeback. And then now you see this version is pretty remarkable. I think it's just I think it's cool of being able to sit in your room and see the butterfly effect you've had on a bunch of people. And that's pretty fucking awesome. It's something you should be proud of. Yeah, man. Thank you very much. Sometimes, you know, pushing and pushing for what's next, I forget what we've done. I really do. Right. I got to take a minute. It's great to be able to be on here with you because different perspective of what I built. And I know you've always been a friend, a fan and a family, right, for this. And I just really appreciate you having me on here, man. So so people are paying attention to this. How can they get in touch with you? How can they check you out? So yeah, man, if you're struggling with something, say you're a business owner, entrepreneur, executive that's looking to make a change inside of your life. It's looking to be coached and want to be part of what we do. You can go to I am a comeback dot com and right on there is an application that you can push and that's the best way to get into my world. But if you're looking for me, man, unfortunately, I don't hang out a ton on social media, but I do have an I do have Instagram. I think it's Mark at Mark Tennyson, Junior, and then I've got Facebook. But Instagram is probably the place where people ever goes. You can send a DM over there. I do have a team that watches it. But the reality has been if you want to change your life, if you want to be coached, you want to feel some of the energy, the intensity that I have, go to I am a comeback dot com and fill out an application. Awesome. Hey, thank you so much for being with us today. You guys, again, thank you so much for the support of the show. Thank you guys for the growth and everybody. If you get value out of this, go find Mark and just thank him for taking the time to pour into the audience today. Thanks again, brother. Thanks, man. Appreciate you guys. Hey, let me tell you about my good friend, Jeff Hyatt over at MSC consultants and check out his episode if you've missed it. With today's volatile interest rate environment, real estate investors are looking for every advantage illegally available. More and more are realizing that accelerating depreciation allows them to free up cash flow, enabling them to acquire their next property sooner. MSC's approach to call SEGs is the answer. If you've got properties out there, you haven't done call SEGs on. You're paying too much in taxes. MSC's approach to call SEGs is the answer. Visit them at W W dot call SEGs dot com. That's W W dot call SEGs dot com and ask for my good friend, Jeff Hyatt. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up to Wealth. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcast. This way of good updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review on Apple podcast and tell your friends about the show. It is how new people find us. Until next time.