How To Radically Change Your Life In 3 Years Or Less: Shawn Pollard - APEX

This is the Beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story.

And now Sebastian.

Ross Sean Pollard. Welcome to the show, brother.

Thanks for the man honor to be here. Brother, You're looking good.

Yeah, you're looking good too. Man, it's great to connect with you. I know we've been chatting for the past couple of weeks here and wanted to get you on the show too. Lots going on Present day there at Apex headquarters in Dallas. We'll get to that in a few minutes here, but, man, it's great to have you on the show. This show is all about telling people stories of where they were and what really brought them to where they're at right now. With that said, let's back up a little bit for context, help our listeners better understand a little bit more about you, and go back to the beginning of the story and we'll kind of unpack things and get to where we're at right now with present day and all the exciting things happening in the world of Apex and your world as well too. So where did the story begin?

Oh, that's a big, big question, my brother. One thing I have to ask, though to use this content, I need you to put that clip that I have, where I put that picture of you and Ryan on his nightstand at Christmas Day, and he found it and he goes mother fucker and flips out. You got to use that as your opener.

Yeah, absolutely that was. That would that made my Christmas actually.

That was great. Oh man, great question. The story is one of triumph. Everybody has trials in their life, right? That's just less life. Mine is unique because I studied. I think I suffered a little bit more than most. So when I see pain in people's eyes, I can see it, I can sense it. It's like as easy as breathing to me. I can see it. Just the other day I was at the barber shop. I see this beautiful woman, 25 years old. She's clipping hair and she looks like she's about to ready to crack, but she's having conversations and I see this about her. So when she gets done, I get. My haircut gets finished. I finished. I waited 15 minutes for her to finish and then I went up to her and I walked up to her. I looked in her eyes. I said hey, are you okay? Oh man, she started bawling, bawling in the barber shop. I said, hey, why don't we go back here in the back of the barber shop and talk a little bit, because I can see it all over your face. You're not hiding it very well and obviously there's something going on. Baby mama, 25 years old, right? Or she has a single, single mother, 25 years old. The ex has caused a massive problem. It's a nightmare. Something just happened with him All these stories she kept telling me. So I just showed her how to departmentalize the things that you have control over and release the things that you don't. And the reason why I do stuff like that is because my journey really started at eight years old. By eight years old, I had been in six schools. I'd moved three, three states. My father was a stockbroker that opened up these branches all over the country and from eight to 14, I got my ass beat by three boys the same three boys from eight to 14. So bad, they give me a plated in my plate and my thumb. They smashed my thumb stitches right here my forehead, you can see and beat me up for three solid years. But the lesson I learned is that that made me stronger because by the year three those three boys couldn't take me on. They didn't grow up in strength and get their ass kicked. So I learned a lesson learning lesson the hard way doing the physical things get your butt kicks makes you stronger. So those boys couldn't beat me up anymore after about three years of taking that shit. Well then I moved back to California. I go back to California. My uh was that my freshman sophomore year. I'm back in high school. I meet this boy. Him and I are buddies, man right out of the gate, best friend. He's that awkward, funniest hell type, massive, charismatic. Not an athlete, I'm a football player, I'm a wrestler. I ended up living with him through high school because my parents moved off. It's a great story for another time, but at 18, he was murdered and, uh, a piece of me I don't. I've never gotten back. He died in my arms. I'm lucky to be here. Tragic night, home invasion. Um, these men kicked in the door and said sheriffs and they were gang bangers and came and shot up the living room that we were in. He ended up dying. Um, the girls were with. One girl got shot in the stomach. I somehow was completely missed and he died in my arms. Um, that that point I was with a girl named Jennifer, my wife today, 26 years later, and she was a rock. I think that God, somehow I don't know how this all works, but she's supposed to be in my life at this point because she was very strong for that for that age. And then I went completely dark, started getting out of it and then, eight months later, uh, more friend, uh, cory, was paralyzed, neck down in a motorcycle motocross accident. So I knew pain, adversity, pain, pain, adversity and everything that I ever fall in love with it seemed to be taken away from me, or I would tell myself that, 34 years old, my son almost dies, lucky to be here, miracle child, he's 17 now. Massive heart complications, val's aortic artery had to be removed and replaced to the right side of the heart. It was absolutely a mess man. The second heart surgery happened. I had started taking prescription medication, medication, pills for pain and drinking heavily and, uh, to offset the massive job I had to do at a car dealership because I was a general manager, the pain and stress of my personal life and my marriage with my son, and from 34 to 39, I disappeared and eroded into the bliss of just anger and toxic and drugs and drinking, and I also picked up a gambling habit and my life was a mess. And in July of 2019, my wife comes to me and says your son is healthy and you are sick and I can't do this anymore. And my daughter, shortly thereafter, walks up to me and says you should go away and get help. Wow, and three days after my daughter did that. My wife ended up leaving and remember Sebastian, she's at the front door because even though I was in a mess, I was still making money. We had a beautiful home, house, cars. I didn't have debt problem, credit problems, anything like that. I was broke, paycheck to paycheck I had gone through 600 grand in savings to this medication problem I was having and gambling. I got lost our savings and stuff, but we still had build money coming in. So I didn't identify with it as being a massive problem. I identified with it as a coping mechanism and I wasn't going to jail. I wasn't doing crazy. It's like I was a really good drug addict. I had some shit under control. That's what I would tell myself, man. And then I remember she's leaving. I slammed the door shut. I said what the fuck do you want from me? I give you everything and I had never seen this in my wife for 20 years at the time whips around and goes. I want you to be the fucking man. You were more of a man when we were first married than you are at 39 years old and something clicked. I said get the fuck out of here. I went on a bender for four days, woke up and said never again. No drinking, no pills. I haven't touched it. I've completely recreated my life and my fitness, my marriage, my love, my mindset. They called me the mindset monster on Instagram and I used to laugh about that, but now I use it as my identity, my alter ego, to help and serve people. So when I decided to take this all on and didn't realize how hard it was gonna be so I know when people are gonna make it. I can tell when people tell me the story if they're ready for change or maybe they need to go a little bit darker before, or maybe some of us need to hit that rock bottom to change. But ultimately, in five years I built a beautiful company, I exited and now I'm here at Apex as COO with Ryan Stuman and I'm finding that I need another level because I'm dealing with a different caliber of men and women. Now the highest level of entrepreneurs is what Apex brings to the table. You guys are smart, you're efficient, you do the work. So now I found myself even evolving faster than ever to be able to serve you guys and our people here at Apex at the highest level, and it's just a beautiful part. This is my addiction, and I tell people that because I don't know how else to explain it, man. And so that's the rundown, from about eight years old to today.

Love it. That's a great way of putting it too. And for those of you listening wondering what the hell Apex is, it is the top, it's the absolute peak is the definition of Apex when I looked it up when I first heard about it. But it is a movement that a guy by the name of Ryan Stuman has started about six years ago and started as a mastermind business type of group. And I don't shy away at all of always identifying Apex as a movement because it radically changes people's lives, because I'm an example. So if you listen to this right now, you're like hey, I've been thinking about trying to find someone that shoot me a DM and we'll make sure that you can find out what's possible with joining our family of choice. Yeah, this is an Apex ad, it's my show, I do whatever I want. So back to the normal scheduled programming here.

It's true, brother, it was Apex that started this for me. In July of 19, when my wife left, I found Apex in October of 2019. So she left. I get her back. I beg her, come back. One more shot. I told her I begged and played, I groveled. I need one more shot for you. And then, in October of 2019, I find Apex. And then for 10 months I went into Apex. Just addiction, that was my new thing. I replaced it the habits of drinking and drugs with Apex Gym reading. I hadn't read in years. You know, I was running a cartilagship. I was really good at what I was doing. I was making great money High six figures, right. And so I'm in Apex. I'm learning all these new skill sets that I don't know exactly what to do with them. And then an opportunity arose and I took it and everything that I learned from Apex went into this new opportunity and we had been building a monstrous company over four years and it was powerful, a very powerful Exited that company two months ago and came here when I'm supposed to be. This is what I was built for. This is what all those five years the recreation, I think, the pain over the last 20 years of my life had built me for something, and I think that something is this, and now I know it. This is what it is. We're supposed to be here, ryan and I are supposed to collaborate and come together Like the king and the prophet story. Have you heard that story? No, I probably have. How I've had a story Probably have In the Bible. It says one man can take 10 to flight. Two men can take 10,000 to flight. The king minded in the prophet. The king serves the people. The prophet goes into the market to get the money to fund the king's movement, to serve all the people. If you look into that from a biblical standpoint, you have the king and the prophet or you have, like Ryan and Sean, and I believe that that's what my belief is. That's why you see me doing all these free zooms is to move apex or strangers that wanna know about it out of pain, because I see pain is clear as day man. I can see it in their eyes. I look at people's eyes. I can see Eyes are the windows of the soul. I can tell when you're in pain. I can tell when you're in disbelief. You have things going on and I don't turn away anymore. I'll walk up to a stranger in the mall, walk up to the stranger in the movie. They're like hey man, hey girl, you okay, I can see that you got something going on. Boom, they break. They cry who sent you? How can you tell? And it's very interesting because people don't do that anymore. But culture is the only thing that's gonna save. The problems that people say we have in this world is culture. That's how we fix all this, and I bought into that and Stuman taught me that over the last five years and I became just relentless in the process of finding out what I can do. First, we gotta get them to make money. You gotta get people making the fucking money. They gotta make money. You gotta have money. I don't. Well, it's not all about money, no, no, it's not. But you have to have it in the beginning to build something great. And then you evolve your finances and then you evolve your health and your wealth, and then your mindset and then your spirituality, your faith, because spirituality and faith are different to me, and so if I were to start with that, they'd be like that's weird. But when I start, hey, I can help you make a lot of money. I get more attention. Once you help them make money, then you take them on the journey that Apex provides, and so it's been absolutely freaking amazing Last five years hardest things I've ever done. And then my wife and I will celebrate 26 years together in December. Let's go.

That's amazing. Yeah, I mean I, it reminds me of I've been single forever. In a day and I'm no longer single anymore. I started hanging out with my neighbor late last year and my neighbor ended up becoming the love of my life and I pushed her away for a long time, several months. I was like nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. I'm good, I'm done. I raised my kid, I'm free right now. Nope, nope. And she kept saying I don't know what it is Polar opposite culture. She's from Argentina, we have a little bit of a language barrier, but we've been able to establish and create something. But one of the first things she said to me was I don't know what it is about you, but when I'm around you, I just want to be better. And we're talking about an individual that is happy with her life. She's raising her nephew who's 15 years old, she works at Louis Vuitton, loves her job and just just just just does life. There isn't really any, you know, above and beyond that. And then she meets a Sebastian Rusk and she was like, wait a second, she goes. I don't know what it is about. I said, let's first of all, it's not me, okay, cause I could not create this at all. But what I am committed to is the work, just like every day when I turn the shower on cold at the end it's my least favorite part of my shower, but I turn it on and then I repeat to myself I am committed to the work and some days I have to remind myself what that work involves. But ever since I had the opportunity to be introduced to the world of healing and healing myself and my past trauma on that, I've been committed to that work. And then Apex comes into the equation and it's like cool, I've started to heal Sebastian, which, by the way, we're never done healing. We heal the big shit so we can go on to the next level. But there's always there's layers to this, constant layers to it. But I found it amazing that she was like there's something about you, I just want to be better and what's the core? Like the core focus of Apex is becoming the best version of yourself. And how do you know you're becoming the best version of yourself? Other people are impacted by you. Becoming a better version of yourself, right? Number one? And number two, the thing about healing. Here's the most beautiful part about healing all of your shit and becoming fully accountable for your life and realizing that everything is your fucking fault. The most beautiful part of all that is that when we heal, those around us start to heal and we don't have to do anything about it. I just think that that's and I'm sure you've experienced that Cause when you unfucked your life, you had people around you that you loved and care about and knew, people that you met start to make shifts and you didn't do anything except lead by example. So let's talk about that for a minute here the whole, the magical part of healing, of where it's really at. Cause I was apprehensive, brother. I've been going to church, I've been knee high to a girl scout, I'm a devout, completely sold out for the kingdom Christian. There's unshakable, there is no, I've seen too much. Plus, the gospel is just not that difficult. So I was very apprehensive to this new world woo, woo of healing and this and that. And somebody had a conversation with somebody that said you know my my breath work practitioner, I practice a PG breath work and that's what was my introduction to healing. And I was apprehensive because I was like, wait a second, you know, there's the Bible's clear about this stuff, about you know the new world type of stuff, and somebody said, hey, listen, in fact it was my brother Owen. He said the Lord will use anybody anywhere at any given time, from any walk of life and any walk of faith, to get your attention and to get the job that he wants done, done. So maybe, just maybe, jesus sent this individual to you in order to put you on the path to healing, and that ever since then and we still have opposing beliefs on everything but the gift that she has to be able to allow someone to understand what's possible by going in in healing is just remarkable. I want a bit of a tangent with that. I didn't want to get off track with you know, with your story here, but you know, un-fucking our lives has a lot to do with un-fucking our internal shit. And stop, you know, forgive your parents, as the Christian comedian John Watts is nuts would say all the time, but it is about that. It's like stop, stop blaming mom. You can't blame anybody after 18. That those days are over, you know. But let's talk a little bit about how healing really comes into play when it comes to, you know, really radically turning your life around.

That's a very good, that's a great question. Healing for me, like from my standpoint, I had to hit rock bottom and my wife had to leave to realize that, okay, you have a massive problem that you have put yourself into that you have to address. And so healing for me was obviously had to do with forgiving myself. First, one of the things that I really I practice on and I teach everybody all the time you're not responsible for anything that you've done. Okay, and people are like what the what are you talking about? Man, hear me out. You're not responsible for not paying your taxes. You're not responsible for not being an honorable man for the period of time you didn't. You're not an event. You're not responsible for the things that happened to you in your life. How could you have known all this would happen if you made that decision right? But you're here, you're here. You're here. It is your. I think I can lose it on this. It is your responsibility to fix it. Yeah, there's now. You're made aware like you can't live life this way and have this life. So nothing is permanent but our souls. So anything that you've gotten yourself into once you take responsibility and fix it can change the things that I've done. It's not who I am, it's what I did. So I had to rewrite a new story. I Told myself all the time anything good that comes to me is taken away from me. My friend my other friend was paralyzed. I lost this amazing general manager job. Then my son almost dies. Then I go into addiction spiral and I had this sob story in a fake belief that and it's good for me, it's taken away. I don't deserve this life and all these unlimited or limiting belief stories. So I eliminated everybody around me. My wife was like really thrown off by this. I cut out everybody in a matter of a week and one week I got rid of every. I begged her. I grovel for her to come back, come home, give me one more shot. I cut everybody out and one week and blocked their numbers. Who does that? In one week? Then I went on a nine month terror in the gym and reading. Then I found apex and then, all of a sudden, two years ago, for the first time in a very long time, I looked in the mirror and I said I love you. Yeah, I'm proud of you. Sean Pollard, wow, the mindset monster, you've done it. We were building this thing. And then I have a thing where I teach people. Look in the mirror and tell yourself You're the one. Look in your mirror and say, because I have this thing, we are the ones, we're the ones to fix this right with culture in the family of choice. Look in the mirror and tell yourself you're the one. And then look in the mirror, buck naked and tell yourself You're the one. Most people will not do it on the first time. They won't do it. They won't drop the towel after a shower and look at themselves dark naked in the mirror and say I am the one, because what they're seeing Doesn't represent what the one would mean. And they get that mindset shift when I work with them on that. So that's the powerful journey of recreation. Forgiveness, following back in love with yourself is crucial. And then I fell in love with Dr Jordan Peterson. I started listening to his teachings and reading his books and I understand that the virtuous monster needs to be a real thing. The virtuous monster that can be kind, loving and empathetic but also ultimately can cause Carnage if had to. Don't put me into that corner because I can't be this man if I need to be. Actually I'm really good at that man. I got 25 years of experience being that man, but ultimately I don't want to be that person. So you know the path of recreation. Nothing's permanent about my soul. It is my responsibility to fix it. I owned up a lot of things, you know, created a company that millions of dollars in sales and all the money that started pouring in back into my life didn't mean anything to me. It was the people like you that I get to meet and we get to have these conversations, knowing this podcast will change one life, if two lives, or ten lives, or maybe a couple hundred, it means everything, because when my phone goes off in the morning Saying you help me get my life back together, thank you. It became the new fuel that keeps me on four hours of sleep and make sure that I'm drinking water only and eating the right food to Manufacture this energy that has to go into this lifestyle, because at first this wasn't me. This is all fake and manufactured, until it became my new identity, and so I believe in the alter ego, I believe in the work that has to go behind and I know, I Know and I'm okay with it, because you can't change it only about three or four percent that really buy into the words that I'm gonna do, or that I say only about three or four percent are gonna follow through With everything that I'm gonna ask him to do. Because first we got to get the money right. The money is the most important thing. If you don't have the money, it makes it really fucking hard to stay on track, to be a better person, because money is gonna magnify you, I agree, but most people, when I say, hey, man, we're gonna help you, help you have a better life, we're gonna get you in the gym, you're gonna lose weight and get in shape, they're like, bro, I need money. And Then you can't rip that out of their head. Okay, so let's get the money first and then become a better person. And so what I found is, if you give them the money and you don't walk them down the path to become a better person and suggest To them who they need to become and help them guide themselves, they'll go make more money. And what do they do with it, sebastian? They blow it.

Yeah, these shitty things with it. It's Renser.

It was the same process repeat the same process over and over. So you lure them in with the money right and then you teach them how to become a better person once they're making it. Because I can tell you this in any economy what we're going through right now there is no money problems. I promise you there's no money problems for anybody out there, because everybody I've worked with I've helped make more money. You have a skill problem, a Massive skill problem, because if you fix the skill, you will fix the money. Do you fix the skill in your marriage? You will have a better sex life. You fix the mirror, the skill, in your business, you're gonna have a better business. You're gonna have better people. So people don't have money problems, they have skill problems. And we fix their skill. They go get that money now that we got them, we got them, I got them with the money. Hey, hey, hey, whoa, slow down, don't go spend that shit. Let's go do some great things with it, reinvest, go back into and then that's how we completely flip the mindset of a human being. That's what apex did to me and I went on to do great things and I continued to person push the needle with it, because I'm open with saying I'm a deductive person. If I'm not moving this way, I will falter back to that, because that life is right. There, the new, they say. There's neurological pathways that you, that you Re-reprogram in your brain and they're added to your brain the more you put pressure and stress onto your body, the central nervous system opens and it opens new neurological pathways to take up more pressure and stress, to learn to work so hard that that as you're working, the information that you need comes in easier, right, the more you push in. But those old pathways of drinking and partying and doing bad shit, they're still there. There's a dormant. You can easily fall back, that old version of me right here, right there. It pulls me back. Some days I can feel him. So that's why I have to pursue forward and greatness and forgiveness and heal the pain, because at any moment I know if I let off or I get comfortable and I settle into a place, my comfort zone for too long, burnout happens, I start doubting myself and the mind starts racing. And so I know the only thing that I can control in this life is my mind, and so I willed it to do the right things and it's been a fucking bitch man, but it's the greatest thing I've ever done.

Yeah, well, you build that muscle, yeah, of Resisting your old ways and leaning into the new ways, constantly on here. But you know at the same time and you know that somebody asked me a question about 13 years ago when I first got started again, and it rocked me to my core and the question was so, so what's next? I said I don't know. Yeah, she was a girl works for Tony Robbins still to this day, still with him. Part of his core team of six travels with them all around the world. And I knew enough to live, I just met her, but I knew enough to listen and I said she goes. So what's next? And I said I don't know. She looked me dead. In the end she goes. That it's a fucking problem. And I'm like these are my offended day, sean. So I was like who was this chick? I just, I mean I got it. I mean I go, hey, tony's core team, shut the fuck up and listen. Okay, I said so what do you mean? She goes. I'll tell you exactly what I mean. Let me ask you a question who's missing out? I, because you're not showing up. That was it. Game on from that point forward. And it's been the roller coaster ride since, but I still remember and I now utilize that in the talks that I get the opportunity to give, because it rocks people to their core. Who's missing out Because you're not showing up. And I remind as well too, everywhere I go, if I didn't show up today for this interview, someone misses out by not being able to have Sean Pollard pour into our audience and be able to get something, to do something different with your life on there. And I think if we live our lives according to that, realizing that our dreams are attached to other people's dreams and our gifts and goals and ambitions are attached to other people, and when we don't show up, other people miss out and that just doesn't settle well with me and most days you don't feel like it. You're never going to feel like it. But when you associate that fact of realizing someone's missing out on the opportunity to change their fucking life because you don't want to go or you don't want to do the thing on here, it starts to just radically challenge your thought process on how you're living your life and how you're actually showing up and things that you actually want to go and do. Because what's on the other side of that, of the conversations we get to have with people, and I know you have the same opportunities with people that reach out and say, hey, because of that thing or because of what you said here, I went and did that and that that that is the ultimate success. There's not a better feeling on the planet than someone saying, because of your gifts, I changed my fucking life. No.

Yeah, that's absolutely it, man, that's the most powerful thing I found. Fine, it's so, it's so attracting. Six months ago, this man walked up to my wife and picked her up and swung her around. A man, we don't know no idea who this man is. Kid you not? Here's your husband saved my marriage and so I get to know this man and now he's a brother.

And we get to know him. I was like did you not have yet he's a big dude.

I started. I started running. I was about 30 feet away from my wife. I started running to her to save her and then he's swinging her around in joy, puts her down, grabs her shoulders. Your husband minds that monster. He saved my marriage. He saved my marriage and so this is. This is just such a blessing to be a part of this mission. You know, and I talked to men and I said does your wife fantasize about other men? Huh, what? What does your wife fantasize about other men? Are you her fantasy? That's a bunch in the gut. Yeah, that's a real serious question, because I asked my wife three years ago am I the man of your dreams? She said I actually posted about it. Today she goes I don't dream of other men, but you are not the man of my dreams. You know how hard that is. After two years of being clean and sober and recreating my life and I'm in the gym, I'm physically fit, I got money coming in, finally I handled some debt with the IRS, I'm rebuilding credit, I got off this addiction, I'm doing all the right things how dare this woman, how dare this woman fucking say that to me? I'm not the man of your dreams. What are you expecting she was. During the process, she forgot to bring me along. I put her on the sidelines while I recreated my life for two years and six months with this vicious vision of attack, and I didn't ask her to simply what can I do for you? During this process? And so that I started working on that. And if you ask my wife, now I am her fantasy, I am the man of her dreams and I don't need breath work. I get that in bed. Yeah, I have a role. I have passion that I've never thought was possible. 26 years after she said I do in a crazy ass way that it happened. She got pregnant. I said oh God, what are we gonna do? My grandfather says you need health insurance. I run down to my work. I was like I need health insurance for my girlfriend and they're like you need to get married. I'm like done, took her to the courthouse the very next day, got her marriage certificate, got health coverage. That's how I proposed to my woman Wow, we've been doing things different from day one. 26 years later, brother, here we are.

I love it, man. Well, dude, I'm so encouraged by your story and I'm sure our listeners are as well. I'm encouraged by our newly established friendship too and the moves that we're gonna make together. I am full on team Sean Pollard. I talked to a few other members this week and I said hey, if you had a chance to chat with Sean, do it, cause I like the guy a lot. Not that my opinion is the end all for what people decided to do, but you know part of that family choice.

Yeah, it definitely does. You carry a lot of weight in Apex, brother.

I appreciate that. Likewise, already in your very short time of coming in and really helping take this thing to the next level, and that's been reciprocal to when I talked to people and I'm like, hey, it's great he goes. I had a call with him too. I was talking to Stephanie Castro a couple days ago too. She's like I had a call. I have a call with him next week too. Man, he really just starts unpacking stuff and was giving me tactical stuff and I said this is, at its core, what this whole movement is really all about. So it's exciting to see other people that I've known for years now and new people, even the new faces that are in the room. We got a guy that just joined not too long ago. I met him at the last meetup. We're getting his show launched here we're starting next week actually which is just great to see someone enter into a brand new environment. He's got a very successful pressure washing business in Atlanta and loves his whole. Nick Stanton Shout out to Nick and just fired up and excited about what he's doing and doing it different in a service based business. But it was like came up to me and he said, hey, man, podcast is next on my list. I'm a few months out from this side in the out of the go. Now let's not wait a few months, let's just get this figured out and we've been able to develop that relationship since the flying. That's the power of being in the room. People just don't understand that being in the right rooms.

There's something, then if I could. I don't know how much time you have, how much time do we have, brother?

We're good, go ahead Okay.

There's one of the things that I'm glad you do, that you told him why wait? That's the biggest thing that I found with humanity is they wait for this comfort zone that they have. They've been molded this way. It's something that you have to break. It's almost as bad as an addiction, or probably as an addiction, where they have to wait for the certain thing to happen, for that to happen. If that goes through, then I got it. I'll do it. Now you have to stop and break the mold and just go. You have to unplug what you're doing and focus on what you're doing now. People, the reason why I say I can I can contend time frames is because I don't have any other distractions. I have Apex, my family of choice. I have my employees here at Apex now that I help and train with, and then I go home to my wife. My wife works here at nine to five, nine to eight, depending on what she did in Apex now running all the events for Stoomin and Amy. This is all I have. So I'm crystal clear on the mission. That's why I can gap people so fast. I don't wait on an idea, Like when you and I talk about my podcast. I wanted to know what would. Should I do this or should I do that? Cause I'm gonna pick one, but I don't know what you want to pick and when you said the way the podcast would work, okay, podcast is for me. That makes sense. I'm not gonna wait a week or two weeks or a month. Let me get through this month, brother, and then put it on my calendar. No dude, now, tomorrow, I move, I buy the mic, I get the stuff set up and I roll, and most people will just push themselves into a corner to where a year slips by, boom, two year slips by, boom. Nothing happens. It's the same thing that's happening with our lifetime members in Apex. They got a lifetime membership. I have my lifetime to figure this shit out and it shows, cause they're the ones that don't log in ever. I got the statistics. It's something in that brain that's telling them I got time, you don't have time. You could be dead to moral, you could be gone and wiped off the face of this earth. So I hope people move swiftly, train consistently, learn new language, learn how to speak faster. Everybody's in this comfortable mode and they're not doing anything about what's happening in the economy with technology, and most of them will get left behind and there's nothing we can do. But the ones that are aware, open up their eyes and go with us will be a part of the massive movement of this Apex Business Association. Because these people get shit done unless they're in lifetime. Yeah, Slow, play it, They'll lead you. They won't go into the next level with the comfort, the comfortability of telling them I got a lifetime to figure this shit out, Bro, what I've done in five years most people will not do in their lifetime. And that's not to impress anybody, but to impress upon them. It's time to move. You gotta move. Audit your circle, figure out your relationships, get your money dialed in and push.

Amazing. I was gonna ask you what your final thoughts are. I don't think they'd get any better than that on there. Audit your circle. People who you spend in time with I don't quote and it never clicked for a long time for me but you are who you spend the most time with the same the five people you spend the most time with. That's who you are. So if you hang out with broke people, guess, if you hang out with five broke people, guaranteed you're gonna be the six one real soon for sure. Yeah.

Can I ask you a question?

Yes, sir.

What do you think about Stoom and Pulling Off Super Influencers for MDM 2024 and bringing guys like Todd Price and Kenny and a guy like you and who aren't the A-Less public speakers? It saved him $1.5 million. It was our idea, we collaborated on. What do you think about that? Do you think that's a good move or a bad move? I think it's great. We're bringing our people to speak that are actually verifiably doing eight, nine and 10 figures. Not the Instagram millionaires that are saying, hey, I run a $100 million company. It's simply not the facts. People putting out fake numbers. We know these blue collar entrepreneurs and firms and practices that are in Apex are doing these numbers. They get the stage now. Yeah, people are saying you won't draw a crowd. You won't draw a crowd, you won't be able to sell the tickets. Man, I don't think that's their decision. I don't think it is either.

You like that idea.

Or do you think you need A-listers to sell a crowd? Because I would rather sell two people than 500 to 2000,. Just sitting there to see a A-list celebrity influencer, right, because they don't learn anything from that. They're not even in the market anymore doing the work that they need to be doing. But do you think the tickets will be sold?

Yeah, I think so. I think we're going to pack the house. I think we're going to break records because we're willing to disrupt the norm on there. You know what an influencer is. An influencer is someone who's paid money to spread lies on the internet. That's an influencer. And again, everyone's sick of the guru. It's great to see all these big names and everything cool. Then what, like what are you going to do after Tom Brady? Bad example, ryan, sorry. What are you going to do after Brady gets off stage? To go radically change your life? Join the fucking NFL? Probably not. But if you have a real, you know, you have a person that is a peer, that has just done more than you, that's going in and said here's how I actually did it and you're actually able to learn from those people and meet them and have access to them and hang with them and be able to, you know, be part of an experience. I think that's what and that's what I look for when I'm identifying new speaking opportunities is that I'm not looking for another hotel with another stage and more breakout sessions and more cocktail hours and more hotel. I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for the experiences I'm looking for. Hey, let's go away for three days and rent a mansion and spend and be fully immersed with attendees where it's all like, because that's the most impact. I think that's the biggest feedback that I get from the clients that I get the opportunity to work with on the speaking side of things is that, you know, I don't just show up speaking in hall ass. I'm fully immersed into the experiences, into the event, into what's taking place and answer, because that's what leaves the lasting impact. But that's also an extension of the talk. You only get 45 minutes or an hour to give a talk, but if you got three days, I went down with Sphere Rocket down to Cancun. We were there all week. That's the number one thing Justin said you know what this guy is. It was. They didn't miss one event. Now one thing, not one activity that we did, and his talk was 45 minutes on one day of those four days that we were there and I thought, huh, I guess he's right, but I naturally think, isn't that what you fucking do? Yeah, you know so.

Yeah, absolutely Dude, I'm in.

We're going to. We're going to freaking, we're going to break some records this year at at MDM. It's a long time coming here to to create an experience, an apex experience you know to, to be able to get people in seats where they walk away and going, you know, my life is radically changed and different because of it. It always happens that way with MDM. I always. It's always a big come to Jesus for me. I come back and I'm like man, I got a lot of shit to work on always.

A lot of stuff to work on, right, but the thing is you also have the ego to where you are aware of your ego and your ego isn't harming you. Most people have the ego to where they go, to that and they learn that, well, I don't know, maybe I can do it differently, but they're doing 200 million. You want to do it differently. That's your ego. And I've noticed something about you is that you have your ego in such a good place that your perception is very high, yeah, and most people don't, and it's really sad to see that. Have people that don't make any money and then I give them the advice on how I made a million and they go. Why would we do it differently?

I'm sorry, what you know where. I learned that? From Gary Vaynerchuk. I met Gary in 2010, 2000. No one knew who the hell he was. He was chugging wine on YouTube back then. But, I saw something in him that I knew and then about a year later we ended up getting to meet in person and I was able to spend In fact, I'd be MC in the van he's keynote in the event. So we'd run into each other just to a crazy story with Gary. But in those times that I get that one-on-one time with him, it's like you're the only person in the room and the most humble kind. I mean he has. Fuck you money, like it is, like it's not in. The guy is the most humble, caring, loving every day guy jeans and t-shirt type of individual and he always said that to me. He said you know you're building this personal brand, a true personal brand. In perpetuity is your reputation, but you always make time for Sebastian. I'll never forget what we were doing traffic and conversion summit for digital market. I did that show for about four years and we had him in one year and stage manager and event crew was like hey, we can get security when you exit stage left and you're done with your talking. He said no, his exact words, no, I want to be mobbed. And he got down to the stage. I think he just sat on the edge of the stage and imagine 5,000 marketers wanting to take selfies and hear. Same thing happened in 2018. He hosted an event here in Miami at Dolphin Stadium. I was had the opportunity to spend the day with them and press and media and hang out and see all the behind the scenes type of stuff, but just constantly just mobbed by people and loving every aspect of it. And he always told me that, sebastian, you always make time for people. I don't give a fuck how big you get, how cool you are, how much money you at, you always make time for people and you check your fucking ego at the door, because that's the true art of leveraging your gifts is realizing that I fucking, I don't know shit. This is my God given gift and it's my responsibility to bring to the world. There was never a mention of boasting about how cool you are about that gift on here. So stay humble, because that shit can get you know I learned that from puff daddy way back when she can get real dark, real quick, absolutely.

Absolutely, absolutely.

You know well, dude, I love love, love that conversation and I look forward to being on your podcast. Man, we're going to do the damn thing here. Sean Pollard show coming soon.

I look forward to it, man. I look forward to it. I'm really excited. Where we go from here with apex are people, this tribe of men and women, and then your audience a great group of people, I'm sure, because I know people that follow. You have to be just as genuine as you. This is just. I found that it works that way. That's why I'm very selective with who I do podcasts with, because it's very important and this is my reputation. I'm tying to people, and that's that's my word in my, in my integrity means everything to me, and I'm not doing anything since I've rebuilt it in the last five years. I could jeopardize it, so I'm glad you have me. I'm honored to be here, brother.

I was honored to have you as well. Another, gary, is a. I learned early on authenticity Trump's like ability, and I never, ever forgot that at all. Fuck, being liked. Okay, are you authentic and can people pick up on that? So, brother, I enjoyed a conversation. I appreciate your time, man. This was a fantastic conversation. Can't wait for it to drop, and I'm sure there's many, many more to come. I look forward to, brother, take care Likewise, until next time, friends, Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the beyond the story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way, you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. Be sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast launch labcom studios. We'll talk to you next time.