Ok, so I’m going to tell you how to win.  You need to understand that this is ALL just a kingdom.  That’s it.  This is all a kingdom so I’m going to give you a few examples and I think it’s going to become really clear.  So this is how it’s going to work.  So first example I’ll give you is from a real kingdom.  So if you’ve seen Shrek, you think “I just walk in, work our way in quietly, and you’re in front of the king or whatever.”

No, most kingdoms are like, you have to know how to get to the kingdom.  Now let’s just assume you’ve already found your way there.  Knowing how to get to the kingdom is a huge, bleeping deal because…..the woods.  And this is the time of no GPS or road signs.  So that’s a big deal.  But let’s say you found your way to the kingdom.  You then have to get through the giant gates.  And it’s not just a quick draw bridge like they do, right?  Think more like Lord of the Rings.  You will have to find a way through a lot of guards.  And so that’s just a thing, right?  That’s just a thing.

Now, a lot of things will happen and many people along your journey to get just to the guards of the gate will say:  “Well, you really want to know WHY you want to go to the kingdom.  What do you want to go to the kingdom for?  What is it that you want in the kingdom?”

And along the way you’re probably like, “This is stupid.  Why am I answering.  Listen, let me just…”

But it’s actually really smart because – two reasons.

One, “I want to talk to the king!”  Ok…that’s not easy.  So, why?  And what do you want?  Because knowing what you want will make it really clear how to find the right allies along the way.

But also number two, being sure and knowing what you want is important because that’s how you’re gonna know whether you need to go to the kingdom or not.  Or when.  Or where in the kingdom you need to go.  It’s not just like two rooms.  It’s a palace.  There’s a court.  It’s a whole thing.

So if you’re like, “I need to go because I need to find the greatest comedian in the land and I want to learn from them.”  Ok yea, they’re probably at the kingdom.  Right?  So you’re gonna have to go.  And like, you’re going to have to make some relationships.  You’re going to have to really talk to some people to figure out where that court jester, the best court jester, stays.  When they’re around.  What time they’ll be here.  What days.

And, you know, they’re gonna have a crowd around them so you can’t just sneak up to them.  They’re the king’s jester.  You know?  This is chess.  You’re really playing chess here.  And yea, at any given point…make too big a ruckus you might end up in front of the king and that’s not necessarily where you want to end up in front of.  Or, maybe that exactly is.

So…again….knowing why you’re going.  But also like….ok, so you made it to the castle.  Hey, let’s even say you’re past that…you’re in the court.  Well now you’re like, well, “who do I need to know in the court?”  And follow me here, I’ve got three segments to this but it’ll make a lot of sense.

Who do you need to know in the court?  How do you know?  “Ok, well…I’ll start talking to someone.”

Here’s the thing, you start talking to someone they’ll be like….everyone’s trying to sell you something.  So then you find a friendly face.  Now, you know all of this, you gotta go through, “Are they actually friendly?  Are they not?  Will they rip me off years from now?”  Whatever.

Let’s just say you go to a tavern.  Have some drinks.  And these people look ok.  Blah blah blah.  “I’m looking for some information.”  Whatever.  And then you befriend a few people who don’t end up killing you and all that.  And don’t end up ripping you off.  Somehow, they’re good people.  The problem still remains.

You’re like, “Well I’m trying to get in front of the king.  And you guys are great.  But if you’re not trying to get in front of the king…  I’m not trying to, like, say I don’t like you guys or we can’t chill.  But…I gotta really work on getting in front of the king.

So, the answer of how do you get in front of the king:  You have to partner.  It’s just like being a spy.  You have to make alliances.  Right?  So, at some point you’ll have to make an alliance to get in front of the jester.  And then you’ll have to make an alliance with the jester to maybe get in front of the king’s aids.  And you’ll have a find a way, somehow, to be so useful to the king’s aids that the king just finds out about you. So that when the time comes, the king….

Or, you could just do some crazy, amazing thing.  Right?  You could just walk in and be like, “I’m a wizard!”  And everyone’s like, “GAAASP!……The king wants to see you!”  You know what I mean?  Like anywhere on that spectrum.

Now, here’s how it relates.  The internet.  Let’s say Google’s a kingdom.  Let’s say Facebook’s a kingdom.  “I was like, ughhh.  How do I…make this work?”  Well first you have to go to the kingdom.  Alright, fine I’m on Facebook.  Alright, then you have to, like, ally with people who actually understand the surrounds, the kingdom, what can be used.  The kingdom has a map.  You can take its course.  Right?  But, you may also be like, “Hey I need to learn from someone who understands how to really manipulate…..or…sell.  How can I sell in the kingdom?”

Well, you know, there’s people who are really good.  Find someone who does markets.  Hey…everyone wants to teach you how to sell!  “You wanna start a shop??”  Right?  Ok well….it turns out you can just open a shop.  Right?  You don’t have to take someone’s class.  Maybe a class helps maybe it doesn’t.  But you could just open a shop.  You could just start selling on Facebook.  In many ways.  But it’s still the kingdom’s property.

Either way, you could make uhhhhh a living selling through the kingdom.  As long as the kingdom allows it.  And when they don’t allow it, you can go look for another kingdom.  Right?  Or you could try it on your own.  But everyone’s at the kingdom.  Right?

“Well I want to get in front of the…in front of the king.”

Ok well you have to like…what do you do?

“I’m a coder!  I build…walls!” 

Ok that’s pretty useful to the kingdom.  You may not get in front of the king.  But, you might be able to get a chance to build walls for the actual palace.  If not, you know, maybe you could build walls for like the forests in the palace.  Who knows.  Right?

[Talking about caller’s girlfriend]  In the medical schools, they call them gunners.  People who sit in the front rows.  Always trying to…always trying to get an A.  Gunning for the As.  So the gunners.

So you’re like “ahh, shes a gunner!”  Well yea.  But let’s think about it.  She’s in a kingdom.  And she’s like….she may not even really know if she wants to get in front of the king.  But she wants to…she wants to be well regarded in the court.  So how do you be well regarded in the court?  Alliances.  Right?

So what does she do?  She forms alliances.  With all the teachers. She’s like “I’ll just keep forming alliances.  I’ll just keep forming alliances.  I’ll just keep forming alliances.”  So then when you meet her, she looks at you like…

She’s got this swag, this confidence of like, “Man this woman just goes out there and forms alliances like crazy.  I don’t do that.  Do I even want to?  Ugh…I hate that.”  So, then you’re like “Ugh, how do I form alliances?  She’s so good at it.” 

Meanwhile she’s looking at you like, “You’re like this amazing magician, and jester, and builder, and thought-speaker.”

And you’re like “yea but I don’t really form enough alliances.”

So this is deal.  The kingdom is what it is.  If you want to proceed and be well regarded in the court, you’ve gotta form alliances.  Right?  If you want to be in front of the king you’ve gotta form alliances.  Or do something AMAZING!  You know what I mean?  Like….fly in on a dragon.  The king will probably see you if you fly in on a dragon. 

You know what I mean?

Like…it’s anywhere between those two things.  But most people try to do it through forming alliances simply because as you form more alliances, you do have more alliances.  You get more.   Did all that make sense? [That’s] really how you win at, like, whatever.

So, first, so really the question is what is something you wanna win at?  Because there’s obviously more than one thing.

Being rich.  So, if you look at the kingdom and you’re like “I wanna be rich.”  Well, the richest person is the king.  So…..the people around the king tend to be wealthy. 

They’re only wealthy as long as the king likes them.  And as long as they serve the king.

“Yea, but they build their own wealth.”

Absolutely, but only because they’re in the good praise of the king.  So, there in begins a lot of the question.  How do I get in the good praises of the king.  More importantly though.  Whyyyy do you want to see the king?

“I wanna be rich.”

Ok.  How rich?  And what for?  The reason those questions are important is because…..you know, part of why the king keeps the court he keeps.  And you can say queen….that she keeps.  Part of why the king keeps the court that he keeps is because that’s how the king doesn’t have to do everything himself.

So it benefits the king to have people by his side that can go fight his battles for him.  Right?  So, amazing soldier, and spies, and assassins.  The king doesn’t have to do the assassinations.  The king doesn’t have to spy and the king doesn’t have to conduct a war necessarily himself all the time.

So, if you’re like, “I wanna be rich.”  Well, how…what are you doing to help the king?  Like, it kind of gets that simple.  Because then you’re like, “well…what can I do?”  And it’s like, you could do a lot of stuff.

But you are an engineer.  And it’s like “Ugh, I guess I could just work as an engineer for the king.”  Yea that’s one.  You could also be the person who’s like, “I will consult.”  Again, how do I do that?  Well you’re going to have to build alliance to where when the king is walking by, they say “who is that person?”  If he cares. “Who’s that person over there?”  It’s usually the king’s associate who will [ask].

“Who’s that person over there that I don’t know?”

“Oh, your majesty, they consult with the other builder and engineers.”

“Oh ok…well good.”

You know what I mean?  And then you’d be lie, “Sweet!”  But you don’t do anything.  You didn’t really get anything.  That a very GaryVee kind of situation.  Just work your way up to where you are in higher graces overall in the court because you are helping people who do work in the court.  Right?

GaryVee is not a king.  He’s not gonna…he’s not even really close to the king.  He just builds up other people in the court so that when they go have their own shops and run their own shops, he’s like “hey I can tell you how to build your shop better.”  Right?  And then he hustles and does all his stuff so like: “Hey I also know the athletes in the court.”  “He I also know the jesters in the court.” While he’s building up his quota in the court, he’s also running his own business.  And that’s a lot of work.

So it’s like, “Well, I wanna make money.”  It’s a big court.  It’s got a lot.  It’s got a lot.  It’s a huge court.  It depends what you wanna do in the court.

Not everyone’s always trying to meet the king.  You know it’s like [talking about caller’s girlfriend], “I’m just by nature am good at building alliances in the court.”  You know, her thing is art.  She doesn’t necessarily care about meeting “the king”.  She may just really be like, “I hope to one day have my art work in front of the king’s favorite artist.”  You know what I mean?

She may just be like, “I hope to just be able to witness some of the king’s favorite artists when they’re on exhibit.  I just love art that much.” 

If she’s like, “I hope to treat people through my art” then it’s like, she’s just an ambitious person who’s just good at building alliances.  And again, the kingdom is the kingdom but it can almost be anything.

So, in school, the kingdom is the school.  Right?  So, what is seeing the king?  It’s getting the A or doing whatever.  So, again, she’s like “I’m good at building those alliances with my teachers.”  Right?  Building alliances, building alliances.

So again, it’s not so much “Ohhhh we all wanna see the king!”  It’s a huge court, dude.

Yea.  A – what do you want to do?  And B – where is your skillset.  Right?  So if you’re like, “Oh, I’m a musician.”  Everyone’s like, “you should do music.”  “I’m a musician, I’m good at music.”  Ok, well you can be a court musician and hope it works.  And hope people like your music.  That’s why you see her, “Oh I wanna be an artist.”  Ok well, you can hope that you get famous.  It’s not about getting famous.  She’s like, “I don’t know.  I know I need to build alliances.  I’m going to just keep doing this….keep doing this.”  Right?  You just start to get good at the thing you keep doing.

If you were like, well.  I was going to say…this is why GaryVee says everyone should have a podcast.  Because everyone has a microphone now.  So, it’s like, hey, go around the kingdom and speak and see who cares.  And be like:

“Hey, will you show up at that tree on the other side of town?  I’m speaking tomorrow.”

“Uh, I don’t know man”

“I’d love to have you on my show”

“Uhhhh…no thanks dude.”

And then if you ask 200 people and 1 is like “Yea sure”.  So then you’re like, “Hey!”  You ask seven people “Meet me at the tree! I’m gonna be interviewing the butcher!”  And they’re like, “Ok”.

So you interview the butcher, and they’re like, “cool!”

And then GaryVee’s like, “Chop that up.  Post it around the kingdom.”

You know, like….this whole thing is like, winning by attrition.  Just get it everywhere so that eventually people are like, “I keep seeing this dude’s flyer everywhere.” 

And it’s like, “yea he does that podcast by the tree.”

“Aahh…that tree’s too far.”

“Well he also sell’s wine on the corner.”

“Oh well that’s kind of cool.  I don’t care about wine.”

“Ok, he also has these books”

“I don’t read.”

And then eventually someone’s like, “Man….I think I need to start a store.  You know…my bow-and-arrow training business isn’t doing as good as I though it was gonna do.”  Bow-and arrow camp or whatever.  “I think I might need to start a store.”

So, you’re like, alright.  So, you go to the kingdom and you’re like, “I want to start a store.”  And meet this…you don’t meet him….but you hear about this GaryVee guy and you’re like “Oh everyone….he seems to be THE guy.”

“Oh he says to go to the kingdom….and open up a store??”  And he doesn’t even say to do that.  He’s like, “No.  Start speaking.  Everywhere.”

And then you start.  And you’re like, “Ok…”

And then people are like, “Hey!  You wanna open a store?  I’ll teach you how!”  And you’re like… “Oh maybe I should open a store.”

And again, then you see someone like [caller’s girlfriend] and what is she doing?  She’s just building alliances.  And then you’re like, “I’m pretty sure I need to do that too.  But I don’t even know….do I build a store?  Or do I, like, speak?  Or do I, like,……..?”

And so you found someone who’s a coach who’s like, “Hey, I’ve spent time in the kingdom.”

And you’re like, “Well you sound you sure have.  More than me.  Yea I’ll pay you.”

And he’s like “Alright, so we’ll talk once in a while.”

Like there is a real thing about about – sometimes you can’t ask.  But I’m going to be honest.  You know?  So, I joined this Facebook group yesterday.  Um…Costochondritis group.  And I joined it as myself.  My own personal page.  And I wanted to joint it as the MYACJoint page that I created on Facebook.  So I text the…I messaged the dude.  One of the moderators.  I was like “Hey is it ok if I join as my own page?”  As my private page, or whatever.  And his reply was basically like “No, absolutely not.  Not at all.”  And I was just like “lol wow, ok.”

Cause again, you know, in the kingdom you’re sort of like….it’s about building alliances, but it’s also about getting ahead.  Like, that’s why it’s like…not everyone wants to see the king.  But pretty much everyone in the kingdom wants to get ahead.  That’s why everyone in [Washington] DC is the way they are.  Because it’s so close to the kingdom.  It basically is the kingdom.

It’s a…it’s an amazing thing right now.  I really get why GaryVee is so crazy about this stuff now.  It is…you’re like….I just need to find a way to not think about it and just get there and do it.  I’m actually, I’m there.  And I’m actually not there.  I’m like, “I’m doing it all…and there’s not enough time.”

For real, I got into bed at 5 o’clock….4:45 or something.  Stayed up watching TikTok until like…really until like 6:30.  I finally got up around 6:45 and I did more work until about 8, 8:10, or something, 8:30 and then I went back to bed.  And I got up going, “Ehh, I’m just not going to sleep.”

There’s no time in my life that I didn’t wanna sleep when working.  And it’s not that I’m not tired, obviously I went back to bed.  But it’s not that I don’t like sleep.  It’s that, yes my whole pattern is inverted.  That’s most of it.  But the other part is there is an excitement when you’re like, “Oh I have a crowd.”

It’s there for the taking.  That’s the thing.  That’s the answer of like “why don’t you just ask?”

“Uh, because it’s there for the taking.”

Like you can…the time you’re spending to try and find the right person…this has literally happened to me.  The time you’re spending to try and find the right person to ask, other people have taken it and run with it.

Even with your coach, I wouldn’t be like, “I’m going to copy your exact pattern.”  But I would literally be like: “Listen…you’ve inspired me.  I’m working with you to start my coaching business.  I like these things about your style.  And I think I’m going to replicate them.  You know, you could do that.

Let’s talk, even in a relationship.  If you’re like, oh give and take.  Or, oh just take and take.  Um…you know, there’s gonna be a little beef.  But, whatever lol.  Whatever.

You know, if someone has a cool…  This is stupid but I got this text the other day.  Someone who was like, “Hey, I was at work and uh…everyone started talking about this scrum stuff so I started talking about it.  DUDE, I looked so smart!”

And I’m like, “oh well, you’re welcome, lol.”  Right?  And that happens…  “Hey, I was at work.  And people started talking about investing.  And I was like ‘well, the S&P is the right move’.  And three people turned and were like, ‘hey you know what you’re talking about!’”

And I’m just like…and there are so many….it’s not even crooks.  There are so many cons out there.  Because all you need is just a little bit of something good or relevance to match up.

So, the question is not just like, “Well what do I wanna do in the kingdom?  Why am I here?”

Yea those are important questions.  But more importantly, or just as importantly is like…what do you want to do right now?  What do you want to still be doing in 3 years?  That’s why I think your first uh …therapist was like, “Well go home and DJ.”  Be doing the thing you say you wanna be doing in 3 years.

But if you’re like, “Listen I’m about that money.  I wanna make that money right now.”  Let me help you out.

A lot of money is made through arbitrage.  Some money is made through, you just give and give and give.  And that’s cool.  Right?  But if you wanna actually go out there and like… and you can, you know, go out there and ask for money.  Right?  So, you can be like “Hey, I have this skill.  And I think you should, uh, pay me for it.”

Rich rich is usually through an arbitrage of businesses.  Right?  You acquire a business.  You get some sort of dividends from it.  And then, ideally, you end up selling or exiting.  Because a lot of the other money is either made from people who are like, “I inherited it.”  Or they’re like, “I worked crazy 18 hours a day for 15 years to build it.”  Or they’re like, “I just…one lucky break AND the other one.”  Or they’re like, “Um…I just found really good favor with the king somehow.”

I mean, that’s it.  So if you wanna make life altering money, whether you’re buying business, you know.  Owning as many…and that’s really what GaryVee and all this internet stuff is like, own as much of the internet as you can.  Buying business.

Whatever really your goal, you wanna own as much of the kingdom, own as much of the internet.  “So, I acquire businesses.”  Well that’s how you own more.  “Oh I have my stuff everywhere.  My artwork is everywhere.”  That’s how you own more.  You own the minds of the people.  Whatever you’re choosing, it will require alliances of some sort.  Even if you’re like “Listen I am the best assassin in the court.”  You’ll still need to have some alliance with some people along the way.