No Free Handouts: Friday Fire #8
Host: Isaac Mashman · February 5, 2021 · Episode 46 · 17 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited for names and terms. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
listening to Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman. What is going on everybody? Isaac Mashman here and welcome back to another episode of your new favorite podcast, Trace the Vision with Isaac Mashman. Now the entire premise and point of the show is to help you become a more capable individual through the means of sharing my experience and knowledge. I believe that if you are able to save time, cut time frames in half and achieve your results quicker by learning from the experiences of another person, why wouldn't you want to take advantage of that? Today, I'm going to be discussing something that might irritate some people. It might be a harsh reality, a harsh truth for certain individuals. If you do get offended, if you're one of those people, then that means that this message is especially true for you.
This is going to be a Friday Fire episode and it is titled, No Free Handouts. Yes, No Free Handouts. Now, guys, whenever I get asked, why are you doing what you're doing? A lot of times I respond with financial freedom. I'm wanting to live a nice life. I like nice things. I want to be able to enjoy it myself. I want to be able to travel when I want to travel. I want to be able to go wherever I want to go, whenever I want to go with whoever I want to go with. But it's deeper than that. That's the surface level answer I'll give people.
But the deep, true reason behind what I'm doing is to make a point. And it's not to make a point to myself as much as it is to make a point to other people.
Now, this point is not to say that I did it, that I'm better than anybody, that I'm better than thou, that I'm greater than thou, like I'm not some narcissist. But the point is that it is possible to go from a very low level and build your way up. It is possible to go from the very bottom and achieve success at the very, very top to the highest degree, to the highest point possible. Growing up, everybody in my life looked down upon people who had money. They looked down upon people who had wealth. And what they were really doing is one, limiting their own options, limiting their own success, and they were hurting their own success because of their mindset, because they thought that in order to become wealthy, you had to honestly be somebody who screwed everybody else over.
And that is a victims mentality. And a victims mentality does not lead you towards results. And so I'm not here to give handouts to people. I'm not here to become wealthy so I can provide for my family and provide for my mom and yes, to a degree. But what is more important than that is actually showing that it is possible and that your life is in your hands, that every single action you take or do not take affects your future and where you go. I started this back in 2017. I've documented pretty much my entire journey. I might have not taken pictures of every single aspect of my life like some influencer, but at the same time, I have a picture out there of me sleeping on the floor in California. I've taken photos of my very first business trip.
I've documented that. There's a video out there of me on the vice president's, he was a millionaire who I went and had dinner with. There's literally a video of me in his vlog on YouTube. Like I've documented a lot of my process. And over the past couple of years, I've scaled, I've improved, I've gotten to higher degrees of success, I've learned a whole lot, I've achieved a lot more than I thought that I could in a very short amount of time. And I'm continuously working to get to that point to where I'm making six figures a month, to where I'm making seven figures a month.
All these different degrees of success, there are levels to this, but I'm not here to basically achieve the success just for everybody else around me or people from my past to say, hey, you have this, you have abundance, you have wealth, you are successful.
So hey, remember that time when I helped you, da, da, da, da, da, or remember that we went to school together or remember that I'm related to you or something like that, and then they're expecting handouts. I'm not looking to do that, and there's a large chance that I will not do that if that opportunity arises. I'm here to support the people who are very supportive of me without me having to go out of my way and ask them to be. The people who are genuinely friends with me for who I am. But because of me documenting this journey, and because I have documented a lot of my process, and I'm showing people and actively showing my growth, actively showing my evolution and, you know, me achieving higher and higher levels is to serve as an example, to set the example for other people to follow.
I wanna be the person who people look up to, who they can learn from, who they can use as an inspiration for their own work, for their own life, right? I'm not trying to become some Grant Cardone, Tai Lopez, Gary Vaynerchuk figure. I'm not looking to do that. I'm trying to show that Isaac Mashman uniquely Isaac Mashman and he came from where he came from and he went to where he went. That is what I'm doing. I don't want people to view me as somebody who is stuck up and won't help the people around me but I would much rather teach the man how to fish versus give the man a fish.
If you saw that I started on my journey, when I started on my journey and you've been following me this entire time, then what is holding you down?
What is holding you back from achieving that same degree of success? I have people in my family who looked at me and they're like, man, this is never going to work. This isn't who you are. This isn't what you're doing. Like, dude, why are you doing this? Quit. This isn't really you. And then those are the same people who are in the same situations or in a worse situation three years later. And I'm over here. And the only thing that I'm doing is improving. The only thing I'm doing is getting better, living a better life, having more happiness in my life, helping more people, having higher impact, having more influence.
And those people are the ones who are still in their situations or their situation is getting worse. And I'm not saying this to try to down talk or downgrade another individual, but I'm gonna be a hundred with you.
I'm gonna be honest with you and say that you are where you are at in your life because of the decisions you did make or you did not make. Whenever I extend in my hand to you, whenever I said that I would teach you that I wanted you to be a part of my journey, my process, my evolution and I would be willing to help you along. That was your opportunity to say Isaac, man, I believe in what you're doing and I will follow along. But no, instead you're viewing it from an outsider's glance and no matter what I'm doing in my life, you're still going to hate on me, whereas you know where I started.
You know my very beginning, right? I have certain people in my family and they saw my process early on and they saw the confusion, they saw the pain, they saw a lot of the struggle and they still chose to not support me.
And so those are going to be the very people who come to me in the future and say, wow, you did this. And I would be like, yes, I did. And you could have done this too. And I am not going to be giving them handouts. There aren't free handouts. The other thing is working with people and giving value to people. That is something that I'm still going to do and that I'm still continuing to do. However, I'm recognizing that a lot of times in conversation, people automatically assume that you are going to work with them for free. And those are the people who are not true professionals.
These are the people who are early on in the game and that's okay. You live and you learn, you grow, you adapt, you become better. You learn more about what it is you're doing and you learn more about becoming a professional and how the industries work and how the sales process works, et cetera, et cetera.
But I've been approached by a lot of people who when I ask for a sale, it's like all of a sudden they're shocked because they expected me to give up my valuable time and my energy and my expertise for nothing in return. And that's something that you, if you're doing this, you need to cut it out, right? Like if you're working with a friend or you paying them or are you bartering a service with them or doing something of value for them to where they're doing something for you in return, right? It isn't just about giving handouts because you're friends, hey, give me this free hoodie.
Give me this free shirt. Give me this free service. It's like you have to be selective with what you do for free. You know, I know a lot of people say work for free and if the opportunity is correct and if you know that that opportunity is going or that there will be an opportunity by working for free that we worth your time that you put in, then by all means go and pursue it.
But if you're giving away hundreds and hundreds of hours and you're not making connections or if you're not really getting anything in return and you're giving away free work, then is that really the right move for you? Is that really the right person or the right situation to stay in? No, right? You have to have the self-awareness to understand when you're doing something that is going to be beneficial to you or you are being taken advantage of. And oftentimes in business, especially recently as my calendar skills, you know, fills up as I take my business and as I take myself more seriously, more and more people are starting to come out and expect me to give them a handout.
And it's not that I don't want to help everybody. I want to help everybody. I want to see as many people as possible when and succeed and thrive and have success and reach massive levels of success.
However, at the same time, you have to respect that I might ask for a sale. I might ask to work with you for payment. It's not because I don't value our friendship or I don't value our relationship, but it's because I have people who are willing to pay me or I have people who are wanting to work with me, are willing to pay for my services because it is valuable. It is something that will get you results. It is something that will solve a lot of your problems that you keep talking about over and over. But at the same time, helping you for free and getting the satisfaction of helping you doesn't pay the bills.
And that's the raw reality of life. It's not like I'm just going to be giving away a product. If I have a product that costs me a couple of dollars to make and I give it away, then I'm losing out of profit. I'm losing out of profit. And relationships are more important than profit at the same time. So if, you know, if I have a millionaire who comes to me and he's like, Hey, I need help with this, then there's an opportunity there to possibly make more money in the long run by showing him my value for free.
Initially, understanding that the relationship is going to grow into bigger and better opportunities. But if it's just somebody who is passionate about what they do, you have to respect that passion. But this is where you need to create content. And this goes out to you who might be early on in the service game, right? And you're maybe experiencing what I'm talking about. This is where you go and provide value with your content. So you're able to help people from a distance and you're able to help people by the content and the things that you produce. So whenever you are approached by somebody who might not be able to pay you, because that's going to happen, right?
Some people are farther along in their process than others and some people have better financial situations than others. And that's a part of the game. That's a part of the growth.
That's a part of the journey. So those are the people who you point and direct to the content that you produce in order to be able to help them get results without having to be invested with them one on one. And by doing that, you are being perceived as the expert, you are helping them get results, you are increasing their value in their life. And then at the same time, you are also able to help people one on one who are able to work with you. This isn't out of disrespect. This isn't being disrespectful. This is being harsh and real and true and honest. And guys, if you don't like this, then that means that you have to understand that you probably will not get far in business because you do not understand the value of your own time.
Right? You can give away all of your time, but if you're not doing things that are producing a result right away or a result in a relatively quick amount of time, then the chances, your business is not scalable and you're going to continue giving away free time to everybody because you're more focused on friendships than focused on business growth and given that could be misinterpreted that could be misconceived right because at the end of the day business is built around relationships but if you're going and talking to everybody and acting like everybody is your friend you're not going to be able to have a client partner relationship or a client you know a client partner relationship to where you're the person providing a service and they are the person who is paying for said service.
There is a balance in this particular instance that is very, very important to find so you're not busy talking to everybody and their brother and giving away your knowledge for free, giving away your expertise for free, increasing competition in the marketplace and not getting anything in return simply because you wanna help everybody out. You have to stop trying to help everybody else out and start focusing on helping yourself and by creating that content, you're going to be killing a bunch of birds with one stone, you're going to be able to increase your expertise, you're going to be able to help more people, you're going to be perceived as an expert in somebody of credibility, and you're going to be able to increase your impact in the long run and also increase your value.
This is a game that you have to learn how to play, and this is some honest truths that most people do not want to talk about, but those are the same people who are giving away all of their time for free, and the people who are going to try to tell you how to run a business who aren't getting any results.
I'm not trying to be a jerk. I'm not trying to say that I'm not going to help somebody who approaches me, but at the same time, you give a homeless man a dollar, chances are that homeless man is going to continue asking for a dollar. But if you were to go up to that homeless man and actually teach him how to make that dollar or put him to work, he's going to value that dollar that much more. And so if you're talking to somebody and you're giving them free value, then you give them a little bit of a taste of what you can offer and what you can do for them, which would then cause them to think, okay, so Isaac just gave me all of this value for free.
So imagine what he is going to be able to do for me if I'm actually paying to work with him, right? That is a fine line that you have to find for your individual business, for your individual service, for your individual product, right? You might give them a free product or a product for free, that is an introductory product, right?
Or a lead magnet, or something that will kind of show them what you're able to offer. And then you do that with the intention of bringing them on board as a client or as a consumer of your product who is a paying consumer. There are exceptions to this, and I'm not wanting to get into all of them, simply because you should have the common sense to understand the exceptions, right? If you're paying or giving away service or products to an influencer who has a lot of, you know, say in the marketplace, then by all means, you go do that. But you do what is best for you and your business.
And then ultimately the right people are going to respect your decisions because they are going to understand that you are doing what is best for you, what is best for your family, what is able to pay the bills, and then you're going to get farther ahead.
Don't be a jerk, don't be egotistical, don't be arrogant, but at the same time, you have to be confident in your product and your service and what you're doing to the marketplace and do not be afraid to ask for the close. Do not be afraid to ask for the sale. Do not be afraid to go ahead and talk to somebody and get them to buy your service or your product. You have to be able and be willing to be your number one advocate because if you cannot advocate for yourself, then how do you anticipate people are going to advocate for you? So again, no free handouts and stay focused with what you're doing. Don't get distracted by everything else and go out and actually chase after your vision with actual action. That is when you'll get results.
Anyways, guys, if you've got any value from this episode, make sure to share this with a friend. I'm not running advertisements. I'm not trying to take up all of your time with some crappy Alibaba product. So do me a just, do me a good one, whatever. You know what I'm trying to say. Go ahead and share this episode with a friend and be on the lookout for more episodes coming very soon. Make sure you are connected with me at Isaac Mashman. Now again, I'm about to ask for the sale. I'm about to ask for the close. If you are interested in building your personal brand, hit me up.
I'm currently taking on new clients in my roster. My calendar is filling up very, very fast. Much love and cheers to massive success in 2020.