SOLO | Make Money by Asking Yourself Better Questions, part 1

It's crunch time at work and you need to bring wings to your work day.

Visit redbull.com slash getting it done and answer a couple questions about your work

style to get a Spotify customized playlist tuned to your productivity.

Plus, score a can of Red Bull on us while you go from to do to done.

And remember, Red Bull gives you wings.

Supplies are limited.

Terms apply.

Visit the website for more information.

We're listening to the Travis Makes Money Podcast presented by GoHighLevel.com.

For a free 30-day trial of the best all-in-one digital marketing software tool on the planet,

just go to GoHighLevel.com slash Travis.

What's going on everybody?

Welcome back to the show.

This episode is just me, you, and the mic.

There's just some things that I've learned along the way.

I have, through the years, just written a lot of notes in my notes folder on my iPhone.

And it's been actually kind of cool rediscovering some of the things that I've written over the

last almost decade now of being in this space.

Because essentially what happened was I was a door-to-door sales guy.

I wanted to not be that any longer.

And the only way out that I could see was just access to information.

It was knowledge.

It was like, what is even out there?

What do I really want to do?

And for the first time in my life, I really started diving deep into self-education and

learning.

This was probably 2016 or so, listening to like Jim Rohn and Zig-Ziggler and things

like that.

And then picking up some audio books for the first time and then listening to podcasts

for the first time.

And then that's sort of led to, you know, almost, I guess, 2016.

This would be a decade now of, now I've read over 200 books all in, you know, in the non-fiction

space.

I'm still, I'm not like, I don't love the game of reading.

So I've actually still to this day, not read anything that's like a novel or anything

like that.

I don't know, just personal preference.

But I have read now a ton of books and I take notes whenever I find something that I

like, whether it's a book, an article, a blog, a podcast.

And then my own thoughts, all the things that I've sort of articulated myself in from

the 1500 plus episodes that we've created on the podcast now.

So these episodes are sort of my audio journal, I guess, of the things that I've learned along

the way.

So on this episode, I wanted to go into some questions, some powerful questions that

I found to be helpful that I asked myself from time to time because I strongly believe

that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions that you ask.

If you are getting wrong answers, it might just mean that you're asking the wrong questions.

I said this one time on Facebook and I had a couple of people that were like, oh, easy

for you to say or like privilege, take or something like that.

And ultimately, that's just bullshit.

That's just that those people pretending like it's not a big deal or that I'm oversimplifying

success, which might be true.

But also, it might also could be true that maybe that person's asked themselves the wrong

questions and they've not ever experienced the power of reframing a question and then

finding an answer to that question and that can literally be the thing that switches your

mindset and changes your life, which is why I strongly believe that the quality of your

life is determined by the quality of the questions that you can ask yourself.

So a little while ago, I put together just this folder of a bunch of questions that I like

to ask myself from time to time.

So there's 25 of them in this document.

Well, we'll get through as many as we can on this episode, maybe we'll do a part two

or something to get through the rest of them, but we'll go ahead and jump right in.

Here's the first one.

First one is, when was the last time I risked embarrassment?

At the beginning of my career, I felt like I did this all the time when I first started

the podcast.

Even just starting a podcast in general, I feel like it's more daunting even than starting

other ventures because it, by definition, is a public activity.

The metric of success is determined by how public the podcast becomes, I guess, is what

I'm trying to say.

So they're sort of hand in hand.

You can't just quietly build a podcast.

You just kind of got to build the podcast and you got to make a public and you have to

build in public.

And this was like the first big leap of faith that I'd taken out after deciding to not go

down the path that I was originally going to go down, which was the ministry path.

So I knew that there were a bunch of people who were making fun of me at the time who were

sort of praying on my downfall, who wanted me to not succeed people who I saw that I'd

grown up with.

I saw, like, actual text message conversations of them talking to other people I'd grown

up with and talking shit about me.

And none of those things felt good.

But I knew in that time, like, man, this podcast is going to be a bummer if it doesn't

work out because I know that there's a bunch of people who are just hoping and praying.

It doesn't work out, which is a weird thing to do.

By the way, like, stop interfering with other people's dreams.

That's such a weird, weird headspace to be in it.

And it literally just means that, like, those people are just never, those people don't

have any dreams that they're working on.

So they just want to, they just want to bring down anybody who has those dreams.

That's the crabs in the boiling water illustration where you put crabs in the boiling water and

one of them starts making its way out.

The other crabs will literally pull that crab down back into the boiling water.

That's that example.

It's that nobody, nobody that's doing better than you is going to criticize you for trying.

It's only the people who are doing worse than you that they're, those are the ones that

are going to criticize you for trying.

And especially, especially, especially one is people who know you for whatever reason,

like people who grew up with you, people who, people who saw you cut around in school or

people who saw you at your worst at a basketball game or something like that, you know, they,

they just tend to, they tend to bring your downfall a little bit more than strangers,

which is, again, a strange headspace to be in, if you ask me.

But I, my point is, like, I did this all the time.

It was like, everything that I did was a risk of embarrassment because everything that

I was doing was brand new.

And then recently I asked myself this question and it's one of the reasons that I ended

up deciding to do this, like, big risk of a project that we're working on right now.

Because the answer to that question was like, it's actually been quite some time since

I've risked embarrassment, like a few years since I really did something that was like

out of the ordinary that was really challenging me that did not feel like I, that was just

basically an experiment of uncertainty that was like, I have no idea how this is going

to work out.

But I do feel some sort of a pull in this direction and I think I just am supposed to

do it.

And I can't necessarily explain it.

I can't write down on my spreadsheet exactly what the ROI is going to look like.

I can't justify the expense to my fractional CFO who's asking me these questions, you

know, that there's no reasonable reason why I should do it except for that.

I asked myself that question and the answer was, it's been a long time.

So why don't I, why don't I, why don't I change that?

Why don't I fix that and put myself in this other position where I'm now again risking

embarrassment.

But if you're not willing to risk embarrassment, then you're probably not ever going to

achieve anything outside of the ordinary as just the bottom line.

All good things are on the other side of your, are on the outside of your comfort zone.

All good things come from embracing uncertainty and embracing the risk of failure or embarrassment.

So when was the last time I risked embarrassment?

Next one that I wrote down, when was the last time I got something I wanted, which sort

of go this episode of the show is brought to you by Mars Men.

So look, as I don't know if everybody listening knows this, but a couple years ago I was diagnosed

with cancer and around that time, I also noticed that my testosterone levels were dropping

like crazy.

And I know that some of it was due to the fact that my body was sort of in disarray.

But then I also learned through this experience that most men start losing testosterone levels

around the age of 30 and then it starts just getting worse and worse after that, about

1% every year after that.

So what I learned during this is that basically your body makes testosterone, but a lot of

it gets locked up and can't be used.

So there's this protein called SHBG that basically handcuffs your testosterone.

So even if your body's making testosterone, SHBG locks it up so you can access it.

It's like having money in the bank, but your debit card doesn't work.

So Mars Men is designed to help free locked testosterone so your body can actually use it.

No synthetics, no needles, just real ingredients that help optimize energy, focus and strength.

And since I started taking stuff like this, I noticed increased physical performance,

especially recovery in the gym, which as I am getting older, I'm starting to realize

is a real thing.

I have to stretch a lot more, I have to take breaks more, I have to have rest days and

things like that.

And Mars Men has helped me to be able to recover a little bit faster, plus more consistent

natural energy.

It's different than having a cup of coffee or an energy drink or something.

It's a steadier sense of drive throughout the entire day.

It supports healthy tea levels, energy and stamina with eight natural clinically-dosed

ingredients made in the USA and third-party tested.

Plus, it's got a 30-day money back guarantee, so there is absolutely no risk to you.

With worst case, you don't absolutely love it and you get your money back.

But over 91% of users report higher energy levels.

Thousands and thousands of guys are feeling incredible results from this, so just check out

the reviews on the website to see for yourself.

For a limited time, our listeners get 50% off, that's 50% off for life, plus free shipping

and three free gifts at mengo2mars.com.

That's mengo2mars.com for 50% off and three free gifts when you check out.

After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them.

Just please support our show and tell them that we sent you.

That's mengo2mars.com.

Xima is unpredictable, but you can flare less with eggless, a once-monthly treatment for

moderate to superior Xima.

After an initial four-month or longer dosing phase, about four and ten people taking

eggless, achieved itch relief and glare are almost glare skin at 16 weeks.

And most of those people maintain skin that's still more glare at one year with monthly

dosing.

Hempless.

LibriKizumapLBKZ, a 250-milligram per 2-milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine

used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds

or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe Xima.

Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies

used on the skin, or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies.

LibriKizumapLBKZ can be used with or without topical corticosteroids.

Don't use if you're allergic to ebglyss, allergic reactions can occur that can be severe.

Eye problems can occur.

Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems.

You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with ebglyss.

Before starting ebglyss, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection.

Ask a doctor about ebglyss and visit ebglyss.lily.com or call 1-800-LilyRX or 1-800-545-5979.

It was hand in hand when it was the last time that I risked embarrassment because I found

that the majority of the times the biggest periods of growth in my life have come after

I risked embarrassment or failure or rejection.

I risked something really bad, but it led to me getting something that I wanted.

Even if the outcome was different than the initial goal of the risk that I was taking.

Example, there was a mastermind group one time that I was in, I paid 15K for the first

year.

I didn't feel like it was super valuable.

The next year, they got me in for another 10K.

I remember asking that at the time thinking, I think this might be a mistake.

I don't know.

I don't want to hurt any feelings here.

I'll just renew it one more year.

I was confirmed suspicions because I didn't feel like they had delivered on the promises

that they set forth in the group.

When I looked back on it a couple of years later because of the time, it was like a big

decision.

10 grams was a lot of money for me at the time.

I remember looking back on it a couple of years later and then looking at a couple like

actual client deals that I had done and I was like, oh, that money that I invested in

that group, even though the thing that they promised to me wasn't the thing that I got

from the group, because I showed up and I worked for it, I ended up making my money back.

Then some on the back end because I was able to reframe the way that I was looking at

it and look for the positives.

One was the last time that I got something that I wanted.

If it's been a long period of time, maybe again, it's time to risk embarrassment and

shoot for the stars and get something that you really wanted because the cool thing about

getting something that you wanted after taking a big risk is that it allows you to do it

again the next time without as much fear attached to the potential outcome.

Once you take a big risk and then you experience a win from the risk, it's sort of like, oh,

you almost unlock a superpower because most people are so fearful to take this risk at

all that they just don't ever do it.

They're still waiting for that.

The cross and their fingers for the perfect time that this is finally going to make sense.

Spoiler alert, perfect time is never coming.

It's never going to come.

You just got to make the decision.

If you know that it's something that you want to tackle, but the sooner you can make

those decisions, the sooner you can make the money back for the risk that you took or

make the time back for the risk that you took or make whatever back for whatever risk

that you're looking at.

Then the more likely it is that you'll be able to jump back at bat and actually connect

with the ball this time.

Maybe you don't hit a grand slam, but maybe you get on base.

Maybe you hit a single.

Maybe you hit a ground rule double.

You know what I mean?

You just got to jump back up the bat and the first time you experience getting something

that you wanted after taking a big risk, man, that's a huge deposit into your confidence

bank.

When was the last time I got something I wanted?

Next one.

It happened now what?

It happened now what?

This is as it relates to circumstances in life.

I found this to be a useful frame because too many of us, and I'm lumping myself into

this group because it's easy to fall into this, easy to fall prey to this, too many times

a circumstance occurs.

An event happens in our life and we want to immediately start pointing the finger.

We want to start focusing the blame outwards and it feels better to engage in the

whining.

It feels better to engage in the complaining.

It feels better to not take personal responsibility for moving forward because it's easier.

Frankly, it's just the lazy way out.

Complaining about the situation that you're in is the lazy way out because it doesn't require

any additional action because you feel like you can justify your lack of success in that

area because of these things that happen.

A more useful frame, what I found is to say, it happened now what?

What it does is it allows you to pull yourself out of your own body and a view the event

that occurred from as objective as a viewpoint as you possibly can view it from.

Now, obviously, you're never going to be fully objective.

Nobody on this planet actually experiences the world the way that it is.

We only experience it through our lenses through which we view the world.

It's impossible to be 100% completely objective, but you can do your best to pull yourself

out of your body, view the situation from an objective standpoint, and then find a solution

or a path forward.

It's sort of like the question of like, if this happened to this other person and they

were coming to me for advice, what would I tell them?

Probably the advice that you're going to give to that person might be the advice that

you might want to follow yourself.

The advice that you're going to give to that person is probably not what you should do.

You should just sit and complain about it and soak about it for the next decade of your

life.

Just sit there and point the finger and then just be unhappy, depressed, unsuccessful,

and a burden on those around you for the next 15 years because that thing happened that

was unfair.

That's the thing.

Life happens, and not every bad thing that, quote unquote, bad thing that happens in

our life is a direct result of actions that we've taken.

Sometimes things just happen, but the mental state that you're in when you're just going

to sit and soak and whine and complain about it is not conducive toward moving forward

at all.

It's only going to shift your neural pathways to a state of complaining more often.

If you allow yourself to get to a state of complaining more often than not, then your

brain treats it as a habit to get into that state faster.

The next time some event happens, you're much more likely to go see the negative in it

rather than to go to the alternative.

The alternative path, which is to see the positive and take responsibility and move forward.

The frame, it happened now what?

It's a question that I ask myself sometimes.

It allows me to sit there and remove the fault from the equation.

It doesn't really matter at the end of the day.

The lessons that I can take from it, it doesn't matter whose fault it was that it happened.

The bottom line is it happened.

The situation is.

It just is.

It's a fact that it just happened and now it is.

Now what?

What do I do now?

Yeah, you can acknowledge that you got dealt the shitty hand.

You can acknowledge that this thing happened that shouldn't have happened and it's unfair

and the world is unjust and unfair.

You can acknowledge all of those things and you know what?

Give yourself a day.

Give yourself a day.

So good, so good, so good.

Spring styles are at Nordstrom Rack stores now and they're up to 60% off.

Stock up and save on rag and bone, made well.

Vince, all scenes and more of your favorites.

How did I let no rack as a deed is?

How do we rack for the hottest deal?

Just so many good brands.

Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first and more.

Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free.

Great brands, great prices.

That's why you rack.

Score more with the college branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo

stash.

Got paid back?

With the Venmo debit card, you can instantly access your balance and spend on what you want,

like game day snacks, gear, tickets and more.

The more you do, the more cash back you can earn.

Plus, there's no monthly fear minimum balance.

Sign up now at Venmo.com slash college card.

The Venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank NA select schools available.

Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms max $100 cash back per

month.

For week, give yourself a month, give yourself five hours or five minutes depending on

the severity of the situation.

Give yourself some time to acknowledge that, but ultimately, how much time is too much

time.

I see people who are still blaming COVID for their lack of success.

I was like, yeah, I was six years ago now, I was literally six years ago.

How much longer are you going to continue to blame COVID for all the bad things in your

life when that happened that long ago?

Is it next month?

Is it next year?

Is it in five years?

Is it in 10 years?

At some point, it just is a thing that happened and you have to ask yourself the question,

now what?

What do I do moving forward?

How do I take any lessons that I could possibly take from this if I had any fault in making

this happen?

But if I had zero fault to make this happen, how can I still find whatever silver lining

that I possibly can and then say, now what?

What do I do now in order to ensure that maybe I don't put myself in that type of position

again?

What do I do now to ensure that maybe I hedge my bets better next time or what is the next

step?

How can I actually take action and move forward away from this thing?

If you ask yourself that, I think you'll find a lot more use out of that question rather

than just sitting and whining and playing with everything all the time.

This next one, no bullshit.

What would it take?

I like this one a lot in terms of thinking of things that you generally categorize in

your mind as impossible because that's the main thing that's preventing you from going

after those quote unquote, impossible goals, those dreams, those things where you're like,

man, it'd be awesome if I could do this, but you know, that's just impossible.

I have no idea what that would even look like.

How do I even get started doing that?

What does that even mean?

You know, like you immediately start finding all of the reasons why you can't do it.

So the frame of no bullshit, what would it take, allows you to then think about or reverse

engineer, if it were possible, how could I make it happen?

And that is a much more useful frame because now you've trained your brain to start looking

for all the things that are possibilities that the outcomes that you could potentially

have some influence over.

And so instead of thinking about, instead of thinking about all the reasons why it's

not going to work, you start thinking about, well, how could it work?

And then you might find that the answer to that question is more work than you're willing

to put into in order to achieve that outcome.

And then you can make a decision on whether or not you want to continue done that path.

Right.

So for me, direct translation and practicality from my business was getting good guests

on my show.

Initially, it was like, man, I would love to interview, you know, Shaquille O'Neal or

the impractical jokers or this, this comedian or this famous entrepreneur or this New York

times best selling author.

I'd love to interview these people.

When I first got started in the space and I wrote these names down on a piece of paper,

it was almost laughable as I was just a 24 year old door to door sales guy, never had

a podcast, never didn't know anything about the online world at all.

And then I was writing these names on a list and I was just like, how the hell am I going

to get in contact with Shaquille O'Neal?

Because this childhood hero of mine, like, this is impossible.

How would this even work?

But then once you, once you go no bullshit, what would it take?

You can kind of sit there and go, okay, if this person has a pulse, if they have a,

if they are alive today, it is possible to get in contact with them.

The question is how, and then the second question is, and am I willing to put in the work

to get that person?

And sometimes the answer to that question has been no.

Sometimes it's like, man, it'd be great to have so and so on my podcast and I start asking

myself, well, how would I get in contact with that person?

It's like, well, I know this person who happens to know that person, but, you know, I don't

have that much social capital, much relationship capital with this person that I know, who

knows that person?

And frankly, that person is not worth spending some social capital with this person in order

to get an introduction to them.

So maybe I'll shoot a DM, cold email or something like that, but if it doesn't pan out, not

a big deal.

But then there's other people where it was like, absolutely, it's worth using a little

bit of social capital with this person to ask for an introduction to this person, because

I really, really want to have a conversation with that person on the podcast.

So using the frame, no bullshit, what would it take?

You know, I mean, this is a really good frame to start thinking about because it allows

you to start thinking in terms of what is possible.

And then again, you can formulate a plan to either attack that goal with some ferocity,

with some, with some, with some umph, or adjust the path and say, you know, it is, it is

potentially possible by doing these three different options, but I'm not really willing

to do all of the work required to do all of those different options.

So maybe I'm not going to go down that path.

And like, that's how it is for me in terms of, you know, being a billionaire or something

like that.

It's erotic because I run a show called Travis Makes Money, but I have no intention

of becoming a multi billionaire because I know, like, I've done the work to think through

the process of what it takes to create a billion dollars worth of enterprise value.

And in my mind, it's like, I frankly am not willing to give up all the time that it would

take to do that when I could use that time to spend with my kids or my family.

It's like that is, it is not a, it is not a worthy enough goal for me to sacrifice these

other things.

Like, the trade off to me is not worth it.

So now I can decide, okay, well, what is worth it?

And how can I attack that thing?

So no bullshit, what would it take?

And I figured we'd, we would take a while to get through some of these.

So we've only gotten through four of them.

There's 25.

So catch us on the next episode.

We'll walk into a couple of the other questions that I like to ask myself from time to time.

Powerful questions that will help you live a better life.

Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode.

Catch you guys on the next one.

Peace out.

Ryan Reynolds here from Int Mobile.

I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless.

It's for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

It's not just for celebrities.

So do like I did and have one of your assistance assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today.

I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.

Up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.

Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees

extra, default terms at mintmobile.com.