Ep16 | Can I Fake It Till I Make It? (The Broke Mentality)

Just talk to yourself and really figure out Do you like who you are and how do you change it because it's in your control? You only have one thing in control in our lives. There is nothing else We have control over except for one thing no about bank accounts if the banks go down, that's it Your money is gone.

So don't even that the only thing you have control of in this lifetime is yourself But do people put him enough time into themselves to actually start taking control? this Talking to my welcome to talk into my thoughts the podcaster We have open honest and real conversations about the things that are playing on our minds. My name Simon aka SJ I'm the video creator.

I'm a father and a business enthusiast My name is Craig aka mr. Positive I'm a cheesy motivator with big dreams and the passion for helping others find and maintain their peace Yes, yes, yes, and we are joined by you can see our two guests with us today If you gentlemen would like to introduce yourself Ebenezer, we'll go first with you Extraordinary. My name is Ebenezer Oluwale.

Also known as Ebenezer Elevate a Transformation of life consultant with a vision to elevate life and bring the vision to the forefront of everything We do love helping people and it's a pleasure to be here. And my name is Michael Mora More commonly known as CEO money Mike.

I'm a wealth and business consultant I help people to double their wealth in half the time to then becoming debt-free improving a credit rating having more streams of income and so forth Obviously in this podcast we bring a unique perspective on our inner thoughts by literally Pre-recording the things that are on our mind before talking about them amongst the group now We obviously do this because we believe before you can be open with others You first have to be open with yourself So make sure you guys stay updated and follow us on all of our socials at talking to my thoughts now guys today's topic is the broke Mentality, it's a bit much now this is this is a little bit of a twist to it because what I want to mention as well is the kind of the Concept of faking it until you make it now in as few words as possible before we jump into the deeper conversation Craig do you want to go first?

What do you what is that? What comes to come to your mind when you think about a broke mentality? low income Cool simple simple Ebs what your thoughts? Actually less about income but about perception for how you see yourself How you see opportunity your your outlook on life?

I would be more looking towards on the broken What initially comes to mind is there's technically being broke and then with the whole perception there is having a broke mentality So yes is money is possessions and so forth But then is it like a whole number of things that lead to it?

So I see it as something where It's not just so simple There are it's quite complex when you do look at it Hmm Complexity man, that's what we're here for. We're here to dig deep. Yes. Okay, cool So what we're gonna do now is we'll actually just go straight into it man.

We'll go for our first pre-record I'm happy to play mine first Have a listen have some deep thought about what I'm mentioning and then we'll just open up the conversation from there. Yeah.

Yep the broke mentality this is something that I I Learned Through my I guess financial journey as an adult as a man trying to Trying to find my way in life and trying to to be independent and then secure myself financially It's it's it's interesting How your perspective changes and just changing your perspective can actually essentially change Your your outcome on on life and how you approach things now I Thought about this question, can we really fake it till we make it and I guess this applies to Young men boys People that are are looking to Have some kind of financial accomplishments or achievements in life, but aren't quite there yet so they put on this facade and they put on this Persona of Pretending they have it until they essentially get I Was never one of them people to be honest, I always I don't really know where I learned it from But it's one of those things.

I just kind of learned to Live within my means.

I always just thought it was ridiculous to think that look, you don't even have any money in your bank account, but I need to still look like I have money and I guess that kind of comes down to Egos and it comes down to how people perceive you and it comes down to Who you really want to be even though you're not quite there yet I Don't really know if that's the right way to go about it to be honest because essentially what you're doing is You are perceived.

You are you're I guess you're kind of lying to people You're kind of lying to yourself as well to say look, this is who I am.

This is what I Am these materialistic things are are There in order to show people that I am accomplished and I am financially stable when in fact you're not and you're lying to yourself As well as that everybody else So I don't really think that that's the way to go about it because essentially you're only putting yourself in a In a more difficult position by essentially having or using money that you don't essentially have and Spending it on materialistic things to make it look like you have the money when you actually don't now I get the understanding of You in order for you to Be somewhere you need to think in that mindset but I guess that comes down to more so your work ethic and it comes down to Your your perseverance and your resilience.

It doesn't necessarily come down to Money that you don't essentially have and I don't believe that so For me, I guess it was it was always a case of trying to live within my means and I believe that You can only really be true to yourself in terms of how much You really do have financially. What does it matter? That's the question.

I would even ask myself What does it matter because everybody goes through a journey everybody goes through a struggle when you get to that point You can you can kind of bask in all of that glory so to speak But everybody has their own hustle and you need to understand that it's gonna take Time to get to that position You trying to pretend like you're already there when you're not doesn't Serve to benefit anybody in my opinion other than the people that you're buying those things from whether it's like Gucci or whether it's I don't know you're buying a Whole bunch of different cars and Porsche and you're giving money to those companies But you're not essentially helping yourself or anybody else around you.

So I would question that Again, that's a mindset of someone that's a lot older and someone that's kind of gone through those stages slightly and seen people go through those stages and fail and Now I kind of have the experience and the understanding to know that maybe that's not the right way to go by unfortunately some people still do and I Can't really speak on them It's it's a journey for everybody.

So should we fake it do we make it? No, I don't believe so.

Can we some people can I just don't think that's the right way to go by You went for a bit of a journey in the in the voice note itself I don't know if you may be reflected on this before because it seems like you may not have reflected on it before until you Actually started speaking to yourself You actually went through a journey of like saying yeah, you know what I did. That's what I did.

I faked it I bought I bought the stuff to show people that's cool and then she was like one second, but but why That wasn't really about how my bank account reflected That wasn't really how I reflected in myself and actually I started to realize I went for I had my own journey I had to live it by myself.

No one else is paying my bills Stuff like it's actually something that you so it was interesting you there's a lot of pieces I picked up your stuff like I'm living within my means and you always try to live within your means We can kind of we can kind of guess what made you put you in that position But what made what made you want to fake it though?

Because a lot of it was to do with other people It was barely anything to do yourself.

Yeah As you said it's a journey in it, I guess we all kind of go through at some point we're seeing things on TV We're seeing how people live and it's like, okay, that's where I want to be So you feel like you need to at least put on that kind of costume or that facade to feel like you're a part of that You want you want to reap the benefits of those people's success as well You see people around you whether it's your friends your family People that you look up to and you think I want to be like that So the only way I can kind of seem like I'm like that is by looking like them Whether it's again the materialistic things the clothes the cars You're in video obviously back in the day We didn't really have too much of the social media videos and stuff But people are throwing money around and acting like you've got everything but you don't and then for me it was I didn't to be fair.

I didn't get deep into it. I wasn't that bad. I've never been one to be quite materialistic anyway But it's just that I I got to a stage in my life where I just thought to myself Especially when obviously I started having a family and I was looking at my finances and stuff. I'm like Where is the priority? What do I need to be focused on?

Do I need to be spending things on do I need to be spending my money on things that are making me look good? Or like where's the benefit in that like, okay It's more of a superficial thing because it's making me maybe feel a little bit better But in reality Is it really doing anything to benefit me people may look at me from the outside and think right?

He's doing all right for himself, but I know in my heart I'm not And i've just wasted money on things that I didn't need to waste my money on So I think that's where I kind of learned through my life obviously growing up more so in my teenage years is about Just living within my means and that's how I kind of learned to do that.

Um, it wasn't I guess There are other ways you can Fake it till you make it without essentially having that broke mentality. It's not necessarily about doing it financially But it's about okay faking in terms of okay. I want to be a boss.

So i'm gonna act like a boss I'm gonna act a certain way I don't have to financially spend money But in terms of my persona in terms of the aura in terms of how I present myself I can present myself in that way. So that's another way of obviously looking at You said there's a case where you keep saying the fact that say fake it until you make it and then you didn't if you Stop faking it.

So you start leaving it within your means Do you actually believe? Or do you see? Yourself making it what is 100%?

No, I think for me making it obviously when we're looking at finances again It's financial freedom essentially is being able to be in a position where you're no longer having to think about money in the first place And I think that for me my mentality is i'm definitely i'm striving towards that just like i'm hoping everybody else is And that's where you're coming out of the broke mentality of just thinking.

Okay, i'm broke. I have no money I can't afford it. I'm never gonna be like this person. So i'm just gonna have to live life how i'm living my life Um, I always think that there's there's more to it because people have done it. So why can't you? And that's how I see it people have done it. So why can't you what what is stopping you? What's the difference between you and them? It's I guess it's work ethic.

It's about putting in the effort It's about putting in the work and I believe that if I put in the work I can achieve it just like anybody else can huge massive massive Journey, I quite enjoyed the journey as well one of the biggest things that you really started off with age and you kind of made a distinction that actually Fake it until you make it. It's not about young.

It's not about old It's actually about your own personal journey and you shared yours I picked up a lot of ego is what drives most of people to actually want to fake it And we kind of think of the big brands and the brands that cost more figures than than really the person Has in that moment, but people still try to strive on a materialistic standpoint to position themselves as if they they had it essentially Which is quite It's quite sad it's quite sad and then and then you kind of brought this parallel saying that you're investing into the company You're you're putting the bottom line of the company before your own actual Stability, but now now you're almost reversing you're unfair.

You're unmaking it you're going backwards because of your Your kind of lack of priority type situation. So it's interesting and when I share mine How we both taking taking completely different angles with it, but I do understand on a materialistic level Accept what you have accept what you have, but then the whole balance is am I okay to Where does vision come into that?

So my current reality is great But where does where does vision sit on the scale of of my life if I don't exactly like my reality? Do I accept it or do I dream on and you kind of close that with like what what does it matter? And we but where does the worth come from is it is it the worth that the society gave to you? Or is it your own personal self-worth that you're building upon?

Yeah, it was really interesting what you said and I feel that a lot of people Do go through through some similar journey and some people are still on in that sort of faking journey and and it's something that People do different walks of life.

So whether it's with with their friends or their business or Um, like for example trying to get a particular woman or woman um people are faking it all these different, um situations and Um, I kind of see it in two parts is is can you and then there is that should you?

And so with one of the the the words that ebenezer said is sometimes it's sad So sometimes some people they put themselves in a position where they're having to fake it But when you fake it sometimes you have to maintain it and then that whole maintenance it comes at a cost So then when you actually go on and reflect on it, it actually wasn't worthwhile So there there is um, so so in terms of like should you you find that in um, Some cases it actually doesn't pay off and it wasn't um worthwhile at all So personally, um, i'm with you.

I don't think that people should um I think it comes down to I guess That's just to be fair.

I think there's a couple of different reasons why people do it as you kind of touched on as well But a lot of it is for one I I hope that you guys might agree with it It's something to do with like financial discipline for one and where your priority is What what is as we was talking about what are you striving for when craig asked me that question? Where what is your goals? What is your ambitions and how do you see?

Money and how do you use that as a tool to get to where you want to get to?

obviously when we're looking at financial discipline, obviously I can only I guess speak for myself is that me spending how many odd thousands of pounds on A bmw When I only had a certain amount of money in my account was not going to benefit me in the long run It's a nice car to have but then realistically when i'm thinking about it I could get a cheaper car still have money left on the side and use that to invest in something else Which is then going to benefit me and get me to the target which I need to get to And I guess a lot of that does come down to Discipline and how you you manage your money in many circumstances But the other thing I wanted to touch on when we're again going back to the topic specifically is we're looking at the broke mentality and the thing of broke is a mindset For me anyway broke is a mindset.

Sometimes you have to be able to change your perspective on how you Operate with money in order for you to get to a certain place in your life And if you constantly say to yourself I'm broke. I ain't got no money. I'm broke. I ain't got no money.

I'm broke I ain't got no money The chances are because you're so deep within that mindset of you constantly think you have no money and you constantly think you're broke You're not really going to get out of that rat race because you're always going to think that you need to find some money You don't have enough and even like when we're looking at people that are like millionaires They can still have that broke mentality where they've got so much money in their bank account But essentially they're still broke because they're not disciplined enough to to use their money in the right way and that's how I see You are seeing it in a way where uh Because they're not using the money efficiently Then they end up being in a broke mentality because they kind of just spend it It's basically just been it's been used in the wrong way in a sense um, but i've actually had a different case where i've asked Or even asked a few people who have always been in low income Maybe they're on council, maybe they're on benefits or they just had a low income in general And i've asked them this question because some of them are the same age as me And I asked them, okay Your average salary is maybe being what we're on 20 23 000.

Yeah, you're maybe around my age. You could be between 28 to 30 or so Have you ever imagined yourself even earning 50 000 to go for it?

And they actually they honestly say you know what actually I don't I'd never imagine myself earning 50 000 which also can From the person that I am the whole the whole attraction energy also means that you're not attracting it to yourself either You will always be at that level because you never imagine yourself here You will always aim for jobs that you think is supposed to be at your worth because you'll never you don't actually believe that your worth is Up here.

So for me, I went for a journey where my first um salary was 23 000 Went up up up got to a point where in my first job. It was basically capping out around 36 000 I was like cool. No problem um I was my my boss for a raise. He said look I don't have the I don't have the leeway to do that or anything like that. This man's a millionaire. He he had anyway anyway So, um, I said no problem.

That's cool I put the day after he told me that and I said I realized that the the job is exhausted itself I gave my resignation the day after i'm looking for a new job. Um senior or above And I want it to be 50 000. I got to my first interview. I got my first test I got 100% of the test they were looking for two or three months. Nobody got 100% Not even enough for them to actually come to the interview.

Got my first test did that they got to the second part of the interview Um where actually they were offering the job as a senior position But actually they wanted to train you into head of department the head of department had already left So actually I was going to go straight to head of department. They said do you think you'll be fine with it?

I said, it's no problem What's the checklist and I knew more than what they knew at the time anyway, so then The second interview covered third interview went to the manager came to me. He said actually I did there's no interview I just want to say i'm accepting you This was a day before um two days before I went on holiday My first interview covered out in less than four days.

The test was five hours But I already affirmed that I wanted it.

He's the sort of first job he brought to me I killed it straight away, but I already said i've looked at myself and i've looked at what I can do I could do enough 50 000, please Like recruiters say no recruiters say none of the things your recruit usually knows the price range, etc I think a lot of people just don't see themselves in that position It's not even just the broke mentality in the sense of like they only spend they don't use their money correctly But also they don't actually see themselves in this play in this in this this place that this Uh financial freedom or even a higher salary So actually they actually just live out their own their own cycle They're waiting for somebody to be their superhero But they're not being their superhero to themselves because they don't actually believe in themselves You touched on something as well Craig, but we'll follow that up after we hear Ebenezer's one So Ebenezer if you've got yours on your phone or whatever, we'll play that.

Okay, cool.

Craig We'll listen to that one and then we'll we'll follow up man the broke mentality Can you fake it until you make it see what I found in life is a lot of people want progress that they they strive for success But sometimes in the pursuit of success We've created this balance of judgment to some who are truly successful some who are pretending to be successful and this idea of fake it till you make it has been stigmatized and really I have no idea why and i'm gonna unpack that see what I found was In the pursuit of your goal Okay, well when you've not yet achieved the goal that you set out for your life your vision your family What does that make you until you achieve it?

You're a fraud? Or are you a true hero of faith? Believing that greater things are possible.

See I found that everything that we believe in life is either true or false There's no middle ground something is true or it's false and it's up to us and our understanding of life To interpret the events that we see see it's not what you see Now it's not what happens in life is what you see and how you interpret it the same rain Falls on us all some people are happy And grateful and some people are running For the hill I'd say that to say this we interpret our life and we give the meaning to the item So therefore if we're on the way to progress or if we're on the way to success And I truly believe That you're not you're not deceiving anyone if you believe it's done if you believe it's yours Then it's yours for the taking and you have the chance to create whatever you want in life So why am I faking it on the pursuit to something that I've already created in my mind?

I believe that fake it To you make it is borrowed from the idea that you just have to make it Before you can actually create it In the actual reality of your life, so hopefully that that helps a little bit right now I believe all things are possible There are no limits and just choose to believe whatever you want to believe and I promise you in good time Everything that you hold to everything that you identify with will become true If you hold it long enough, but can you fake it till you make it potentially potentially potentially That was dope.

I know I'm actually happy that in some ways You as you said it's kind of opposite to what I said in some ways We kind of disagree with each other because it gives us a healthy debate and conversation around where our thoughts are And I mean you kind of It definitely hit home to be fair when you were saying that because you was like, okay Well, am I really faking it if I kind of believe in it?

To other people from the outside, I guess they can think that i'm just doing this and it's not real to them But to me in my heart i'm already there or this is where i'm achieving. This is where i'm striving for This is where i'm going and this is just part of my journey So you can't tell me i'm faking it even though i'm technically not quite there yet in your eyes in my eyes I'm getting there And that was sick.

That was sick. I like that I love the story that craig mentioned because that that for me is the parallel to everything that I believe and speak on Is because I saw me in the eyes of craig.

I saw me where I was But around me the environment didn't match up So I had to do one of two things I had to change my environment or adopt my reality And i'm I don't really believe in reality reality is an illusion of possibility My understanding of everything is you create your future first and then live into it Even if it doesn't feel comfortable.

Um, so so I appreciate that story for me And that's pretty much the foundation of life for myself and how i've been able to move forward I love to hear uh, I love that they are different to yourself and myself So I want to hear some other takes as well.

There is an exercise that we get people to do It's called be your future you so we get people to actually, um write down What person they want to be for example in 10 years time and then to start being that person now when we say being that person it's in terms of uh, um You can talk about their characteristics and their values and the skills that they want to have That lead to all of these things that they do actually want to have so we encourage people to be their future selves But of course not in a way where they are not genuine When you was talking about, um Basically, uh when people are in a position where they're in a broke mentality and they're almost looking for The superheroes they're looking for someone to kind of give them the help in hand.

Now. Do you think that we play Victim too much as as a culture as a society as people we're talking about us as as black men as well When we're growing up, do we think that we play too much of a victim to circumstance and say look we're broke We're living in a council estate No one's helping us the government isn't giving us money And that's what fuels us to stay in that that cycle of being in that broke mentality.

What do you guys think about that?

Guaranteed that is the whole Mansa right there that is the victim mentality is everything because I think like some people obviously they do they are they do they are Born into a household which is quite broke, you know, but actually my parents are broke Like they were in white chapel, they were reusing nappies they that's how they kicked off they started but they knew what they wanted They knew what they wanted and then it passed on to me now how it passed on to me Before I even got into finance because I didn't actually start working Until when I was 21, but they were really putting a lot of things into me about how to manage money And they want rich people but they knew how to manage their money to make it seem like they got they got what they want Now they're in their dream home in st.

Lucia Retired early you understand so what they end up putting into me You know when you're in school and you fail at a test or something You just get some low marks at a test and you come back home and then they they they they they talk about your results And you're like well Like half the class got it or 90% of the class got the same test.

They say you wonder you're not 90% of the class Is there anybody in the class? Anybody in the class That got more than your score or got all got the score that you what you wanted I said, yeah, he said why that couldn't be why couldn't that be you? Hmm Now there was one time one time that everybody did bad and nobody wanted each other's marks Everybody's marks are bad.

It was just terrible Then I was like, oh I got them this time went straight in went straight in yeah And they said they said the same thing. I said, yeah, I said they I was waiting for the question Is there anybody in your class? I said no, there wasn't actually No, it wasn't He said well, why couldn't it be you? Did they give you the material? Did they teach you the things?

Is there anything on the test that they didn't teach? I said, well, yeah, what so you did the teacher not teach you? I said no, they did But it just didn't work. It didn't work out how So you could have done it Was this IT by the chance? Was this our IT class? No, no, no, IT. I was kidding.

I was kidding But they're basically like so you could have done it But it didn't happen because you wanted to be like everybody else so that instilled in my head that you're never Supposed to be like everybody else So when it came to me starting to work people when I first like working people were talking all kinds of rubbish about me Like craig you ain't never worked in your damn life.

You're working at 21 years old You're just going to spend all the money and then when I got the money I saved 20 000 pounds in the first two years of my work in the career Because I knew what I had to do.

I had to do my parents already have built their house They were gonna leave and I knew well actually my my goal compared to everybody else's is actually for me to go and get The house at the same time I was already learning that when they used to give you the pocket money If you really don't need to buy something just save it And when you want to buy something like a large laptop or something you take your time and you build it up So when you go to the cinema and someone's let's go cinema this week.

Cool. Let's go cinema. Let's go cinema next week.

Cool Then you go cinema and you're like, this is the third time in a month I can't need to say i'm broke and then the thing is my account had money I could have withdrawn from the account Gone to cinema and then go and and say yeah, i'm gonna live like everybody else I was I was very happy to just be myself because my parents instilled that in me to just be yourself But yes, the victim mentality is something that people have because they're so busy watching other people and then blaming it on other people for where they are But i'm telling you that in our in our lifetime everybody has been been able to become a millionaire And that's it was like how's that possible?

I'm telling you i've been needs a touch on it He said where he wanted to be isn't where his people that the people he was surrounded by was going So he had to change either his environment or his vision everybody's changing their vision And bringing it down to where they are where he's basically changing his environment and bringing himself where he wants to be And that's what that's that's a completely different mentality Shoot don't want to chime in.

I love i love quick to to do my budget planning for the year That's that's some next level financial management Respect to the family.

So with the victim mentality, um like claiming I think the word the words i'm i'm big on words if you haven't already told the the idea of claiming Victim mentality I think is is interesting because I don't Often know that people are given the option and the realization that they don't have to be victims But kind of we kind of born if you're born into a victim mentality, then I don't need to claim it You know if you're born into work, you haven't really got to claim it if you're born into poverty You don't have to claim it, but you do have to accept it So now I said do I actually accept or reject the idea that just because this is my reality doesn't mean it doesn't come into my future And then you start to move inside it But yeah around me we come from a different income situation.

We don't live in the greatest place, but i'm not associating with it You know, I mean and not to disrespect where you come from But it's just been just because I see it doesn't mean it's mine Just because I can hold it doesn't mean I created it So what's in front of you is just a picture of the history history history is depicted in the present day But the future is not a depiction of the past the future is the prediction the depiction of what you're doing today So I think it's actually it's an educational and a lot of what i've been doing at level marketing as well In part of the consultancy is really just helping people transform their understanding of who they are Because when you understand who you are you can create new results like your financial blueprint The point of the day is based on who your identity So I really appreciate it.

The victim is something that you can claim And but you don't have to accept the result Cool. Okay. Well based on that mike i'm gonna do a bit of a q a and I want to come to you first actually Have you ever been in the circumstance where you've played the victim and 40 years old?

You know what i'm gonna get myself out of this by making sure I don't look like a victim Um, yeah, i'll actually um say I have I'll say 90 percent of the time It's like i've had But then there's been times where I feel like I don't have But then this is where for example, we encourage people to do what we call a net worth statement Because a net worth statement shows you how much you are financially worth it shows you what you have And what what you don't have so what you own and what you don't own so for example You can look at your bank account and there isn't much there, but then you have assets So this is where there's the there is the difference between being um broke and being poor It's a it's different being rich and being wealthy.

It's also two different things so you can find that someone can be wealthy But they are broke So I remember there was a time when I went business networking And like me like today i'm wearing i'm not wearing a three-piece suit or anything But i'm notoriously known for wearing three-piece suits So whenever I went networking Um people would naturally gravitate to me.

So yes, there have been times where um, I was quite conscious of my perception, um, or should I say of how others will perceive me But now i'm at a point where I'm, not really concerned with the opinions of man, but more so concerned with um The opinion i'll even call it the opinion but but god's perception of myself I guess with what i'm saying i'm now at a point where um I don't have to think in ways that I thought before but there were times where my maturity and i'll call it spiritual maturity Um, it wasn't there um, and so then you do fall into These different I wouldn't call it traps but ways of thinking and then ways of doing There's people that still are ages people that are a lot older that are going around buying all of this stuff buying these flashy cars Spending money on gucci and and retarte doing shopping sprees and they don't actually have a lot of money But they're just saying spending it because it gives them a specific image and they like how that makes them feel Now, how do we how do we kind of get out of that cycle?

It's for you guys anyone can chip chip in on that. So yeah, what what i'd say is that when you look deep into it, you'll find that there is um Personally, i'll call it there.

There is a deeper issue and Something like that for me it comes from the person being insecure With who they are and their truth to the point where they have to be someone else and be something else So that's what it comes down to so people have to become comfortable with who they are In order to be comfortable then with what they have But for me, I know that I have something which is priceless Um, and so when I start talking about my faith And so forth.

I know that I have something That makes things like money worthless Like I couldn't put a price on what I have And so when I know that I have that I know then I don't need to be faking It at all Um, it becomes unnecessary But that's when I that that's because I come from a faith perspective and I seek to operate in my faith as well How do people kind of break that?

Um That chain I can say i've never actually gone through it I don't actually think i've actually gone through a case where i'm actually overspending Or doing more than my bank account can handle support other people People's um people faking it in this world is a sign of lack Lack inside of them not a lack outside or not even a lack in their bank account, but lack inside of them So they overcompensate It's like when they're not doing something or they're not achieving a certain level They're not achieving something or they don't even understand themselves.

They start to look into the world to feel filled filled up But as mike mentions he uses he's more spiritual. So who fills him up?

God Yeah, it may seem like the suit and etc is what um Attracted people but actually it wasn't about that is his open posture and open posture comes for free You ain't gonna pay for that You can have a certain you can have it and the thing is it's it's a bit weird because everyone's like well Well, if I don't have this suit and what happens I said Well, actually when you have a certain mindset about yourself, you will dress in a certain way that you feel better Anyway, it's very unlikely that you're going to be completely slumped out unshaven Unclean And feel great in yourself.

That is that there is a really there's no correlation between the two where you feel You feel amazing on the inside, but you treat yourself rubbish on the outside.

That is almost impossible But there is a case where people keep putting this makeup and and and suit on themselves like a To kind of cover themselves for what they don't like inside of themselves The first boss I ever had he interviewed me in shorts shorts and sandals It was a hot day. He interviewed me in shorts and sandals.

He said yeah when you're here You can just be casual joke is now head is he said you can be very casual if you want to I said cool That sounds good, but I don't really I don't really like that. I don't I don't start my career in shorts and sandals Toes toes ain't a big thing for me, you know So I said so he said he said cool. That's no problem.

I came in suits for four years shirts and suits for four years To the point where when the first year passed he started to bring me to all of the meetings now these meetings He he specialized in finance hedge funds and basically people that would they were massive investors So every see I saw they were these people were worth ridiculous amounts, but I was looking like them But he brought me and he said, you know what?

You know what you I want to bring you because you're always ready So when people are looking outwards they're looking for more money more validation more job opportunities all of these other things I I implore people to look inside themselves first and really see what do they see in themselves?

And if they don't like it begin to change things there first and everything around you will lay out the way it needs to That is I believe in and people like well, okay. What's what's the what's the business plan behind that? What's the analysis? There's no analysis bro. Just talk to yourself and really figure out Do you like who you are and how do you change it?

Because it's in your control You only have one thing in control in our lives. There is nothing else We have control over except for one thing not even our bank accounts if the banks go down, that's it Your money is gone.

So don't even that the only thing you have control of in the in this lifetime is yourself But do people put him enough time into themselves to actually start taking control Identity is something that we speak about when we go deep but really and truly I think that is it if i'm wearing a brand because it's replacing an identity i'm yet to create Instead of actually creating a brand i've never really been big on brands You don't really find too many brands the rare occasion the extra sauce But for the longest time if you look back in my historical photos You will never really see me in brands even when people were doing that because it didn't feel like me I'm like are you wearing the brand because you feel like you identify with the brand or you wearing you know I mean, I just didn't get it and then my brand like many of us became suits I was the guy who you know, I mean, well we turned out to breakfast in a suit So I'm not wearing it for you.

Um, it's the identity that i've You know, once you create it, you have to live into it. So this is who I am Uh, where's the breakfast?

Back to you back to you money doesn't grow on trees is often something that we instill into the mindset of our kids We want to teach them about the importance importance of money But in reality are we actually teaching them to be broke just like us and how do you break out of that cycle?

off That's a big off money doesn't go on trees actually if you perceive that in this day and age that can actually be seen as something quite toxic Um, because you're not actually teaching them how it is grown in a sense. You're not teaching them what it requires Um, I didn't have that kind of saying, uh, i'm just i'll call my parents and say thank you What they've done I didn't have that saying.

Um, mine was just like you you basically you earn what you work for Um, so everything I gained I I was a small child in the sense of they gave me the stuff that I worked for So I was I pretty much got all the grades that I needed to get in the beginning Um with gcc's I got all the grades. I got the the good effort. I got the good attendance.

Uh, um Phrases and then obviously they would just say look you did well So then you get this and if I didn't do well Then i'm not going to get it and then I learned more after that So the first part was get what you work for the second part was Are you working smart? Like some jobs are great and you can work really hard But are you working smart?

Are they are you getting the right amount of money for what you're going to do? And then the third part for me was it's not all about money So I think that is the three pieces I say pass out to your children as well. What do they enjoy? How hard are they willing to work for it? And then And then reward them for it and then are they working smart?

Like are you positioning your your your child or yourself even in the right place in the world? Because there is i'm telling you for every one of us of our age There is somebody in this world in our industry getting paid more than us So why can't it be you and that's exactly why I took it from my parents as well Because if there's somebody in the classroom or if it was even possible Then why can't it be you?

So, um, is it true money doesn't grow on trees well I did a bit of research Traditional money does grow somewhere because it comes from the plant base But that's that's nominal But the ultimate is the actual reality of the statement and what it does in the condition of a person is really what we're talking about And it doesn't yes, it's a it's a reverse. It's a negative.

It's like giving someone a negative statement You don't you don't give them a solution And you also don't realize that In that statement, you're actually you're you're disarming a truth because money although it doesn't maybe it doesn't grow on a certain tree It can grow and again investment is a form of growth in fact If you invest in yourself that growth can the returns can't be measured because you can now live a life way beyond your current Reality because you can be whatever you want to be as a result And how do you break out of it and education?

I believe education is one of the gateway tools to a better life and I personally development Personal development has transformed my life over the past Four to five years and I probably wouldn't even have the privilege to be on this podcast Had it not been for personal development being able to travel and meet mentors and sit at the feet of the greatest minds in the world so very much education Um and a conscious decision so again going back to that I can I can I can accept I can associate with it But I don't need to accept it With a tree for it to get there a seed must be planted So this is the whole concept of you report you sow So my question to people is always that look if you do want money You have to sow something to to begin with you have to have that investment whether it's time money your skills that needs to go in so um, and as Ebenezer said He has gone through a whole process of self-development And in and that self is an investment because he's investing his time and his money And in doing that we find that with everything else he goes on to do He's a person of more value, which means that he's able to then Give more and then earn more The question is if being broke is a mindset Why are we not teaching the rich mindset and what does that even look like?

Now now now is that I want to know if that was a parent or not because they're saying why are we not teaching the rich mindset?

But they're probably looking at education and schools I'm gonna tell you this I'm gonna tell you this if people don't already know The system was not created to benefit us the system was created to benefit itself It has to keep going the system includes government school, etc Yes, there are some good superheroes and and good people out there trying to change the system But the system continuously shows how it just likes to throw us in the bin So when they talk about why are we not teaching it?

Why are you not teaching it? And if you can't teach it, why are you not teaching yourself? This is what I as it and this isn't an attack because this is stuff that we we go through This is personal development when you have say now, you know what? I want to go to a certain place Well, okay, how are you going to reach there? And then you say, okay Well, how what are you going to do to get to there?

What is rich as well because mindful rich is that actually well if your bank account is multiplied You have a hundred thousand in the bank, but let's say you have to work 50 hours a week for it That that doesn't feel rich to me Rich to me is when your life is your life is thriving your bank account is just it's enough And you don't have to spend so much time working for it.

You just get to spend more time living And that's what really reaches to me. So actually for the person that asked that if you're listening The rich mindset is basically what are you do? You have a rich mindset yourself for you to be able to teach it and pass it on and pass it on to others And what is rich to you? Is it just about money or is it actually more about your life and what you can do with it? So really?

Why do we not teach it? So craig mentioned the concept of the system Um, and it's an interesting one because obviously this is a perspective, right?

But ultimately from a fundamental standpoint, they say charity begins at home And so a charity being the way that you are the way you are to people Is not something that you expect to learn in any form of educational institution or system your your nature comes from the home So I believe if that that richness of nature should come from the home then really well Should be something that is positioned from the offset because everyone else has their own agendas.

Okay, and i'll leave it at that For a diplomat diplomacy Everyone's got their own agenda But ultimately my agenda can be whatever it wants and we live in closely.

This is a very Um topic very very close to me is we live in the information age, right 10 25 years ago to be doing this You know the stream that you guys have incredibly put together like this just wouldn't it's laughable But now we have reached that never before information like never before if you go onto a stream called youtube One of the largest most streamed networks in the entire world you can find anything on anything ultimately How do we teach it?

Well, one is abundance Yeah, I believe in abundance in the sense that nothing is nothing has a limit that we live in an infinite universe We live in an infinite world But when you start to talk abundance and not say like I can't do this. We can't do this We shouldn't go there. You start to say we can how can we what do I need to do?

and and then to And to close out is actually Starting to see yourself There's one thing to say. Yeah, I can do it but visualization richard kiyosaki For america and i'm sure we we know that america has an influence Over all the countries in the world, but he said that in america in 1904.

He said that financial education was taken out of the education system And he said it was done by um Like the elite Now for that to happen, this is where he then goes into their being agendas and so forth. Now everybody can Self-educate themselves in the area of finances, but the question is will they?

So the issue isn't Getting the education because you can buy the book you can go and watch the the youtube videos Um, you can speak to people who know their stuff the education the knowledge is there But are they going to get it?

And I find that with a lot of people they aren't and then they'll come down to a number of different reasons when i'm speaking to people about things like inheritance planning so things like wills and trusts They had never thought of it In their life that is something that they have to think about when I speak to them maybe about insurance Like life insurance and so forth.

These are things that they are completely clueless about So there's a lot out there that they need to know but they don't know that they need to know it So they aren't actually trying to find out about it.

That's that's um, the first issue The second issue is that once you start opening up their mind up to all of these different things You find that there is um procrastination and complacency with where they are and what i've then come to find is that human beings It's almost as if they are at what we call survival mode that that's the mode that they are set at they're not they're not almost like wired to To um to thrive it's almost like they are just wired to survive they they have that survival instinct So as long as i've got a couple hundred pounds in my bank account and I know that money is going to come in At the end of the month.

I'm fine.

I don't need to do anything else I'll follow up from just what Mike has said actually and just say for I guess you're talking about education It's a lack of I guess it's ignorance in in certain respects again We're looking at the system and how the system is wired especially for People obviously from our background from our culture obviously trying to survive We don't want to get political on this but It's a case of there are certain agendas that have been put in place so that we do not succeed And that's a whole different topic in terms of a podcast But I think that it does come down to the fundamentals of the education system Needs to be there and if we can't rely on it to be put into our schools As parents as mentors as as adults as as people who can influence others We need to give that education system.

We need to educate ourselves first of all and then educate others And I think that's that's the most important thing to get out of that broke mentality We first need to learn it ourselves And then once we learn it be able to teach other people and I think that's the best way to get out of that cycle How can I say I I We talk about I guess broke mentality is a lot about money But actually I like to focus more on the mentality side The mentality side is actually the biggest part to it because as I said If we're going to talk about things that we can control the one thing that we can control is ourselves Um, and I think maybe we weren't taught to do that, which is completely fine But if you're feeling there's been a struggle for a long time and even when you have earned more money You probably earn more money than you did five years ago or ten years ago But yet still you still have more more more problems when I say more money more problems So actually, you know what focus it on yourself and maybe the problems will start to fade away And um not even exist anymore need it be that you will control the way that you spend So then actually the money that you have already is enough Or you will actually start to attract more money into your life and more life into your life I guess being able to not survive anymore, but actually live Um, so yeah, that's that's my part I think everything rides, uh and falls on gratitude So understanding no matter what i've experienced up until this point no matter what mentality has been Showered upon me or forced upon me.

I'm grateful for where I am I'm grateful for all of the resources I have or don't have but i'm also grateful that in this season with the Technology and the mentorship that I can actually seek I Can move forward to any realm of possibility be it personal spiritual financial?

It doesn't matter that the playing field has been leveled and I believe in this specific season And more wealth will be created on multiple dimensions than in ever any season My question is How does your finances? Look against these 20 areas So these 20 areas we're talking about debt freedom as I said before credit score we're talking about do you have financial accountability?

Um, do you have an estate plan like these are all the different areas of finances? That you need to be aware of not just for yourself, but also for your loved ones And until you are aware of these 20 areas How are you going to really seek to organize and optimize your finances?

So yes, there are 20 areas i'll say come to know of these 20 areas and and Just compare your finances against it and then now you have something to actually work towards Because that's what we we essentially need because if you've got break broke mentality There's something that you need to work towards and the the 20 areas for wealth mastery will give you That focus so that you can move out of having a broke mentality Amazing amazing.

Thank you guys man.

So obviously for you listeners at home This podcast isn't just about us talking to you and giving you advice It's about you guys getting involved asking questions continuing the conversation And opening up to us about your views and your experiences as well So if you enjoyed the podcast, please like share Remember to follow us to stay up to date with all of our new content and events And thank you guys so much for listening.

Thank you craig. Thank you. Ebenezer. Thank you mike and i'll see you guys