Let’s be real for a second. 👇 ARTICLE LINK HERE We live in a world that tries to convince you that you can build a massive empire entirely from behind a laptop screen. The gurus tell you that if you just have the right funnel, the right ads, and the right Slack channel, you never have to leave your house. You can just sit in your pajamas, drink coffee, and watch the millions roll in. ☕💸 I used to believe that too. And don’t get me wrong—tech is great. Zoom is convenient. But there is a massive difference between being busy online and being powerful in person. I didn't realize this until I read a study from the Harvard Business Review that stopped me in my tracks. They found that a face-to-face request is 34 times more successful than an email. 34X. That means for every ONE deal you close in person, you would have to send 34 emails just to get the same result. 📉 That was the moment I realized that "proximity" isn't just a buzzword. It’s a mathematical multiplier. You can learn content online. But you catch vision in person. Over the last decade, I’ve tested this theory. I’ve gone from sitting in the cheap seats at conferences to sharing the stage with legends like Patrick Bet-David. And I can tell you, the view is very different from the front of the room. Here is the truth about how I used "The Room" to scale to 8 figures—and why you need to get into ours. From The Cheap Seats to The Main Stage I wasn’t always the guy handing out the awards. For a long time, I was the guy sitting in the back row, frantically taking notes and hoping the speaker would drop a crumb of wisdom that would change my life. 📝 I remember paying my own way to attend Brendon Burchard’s events. I wasn't a "VIP." I didn't have a special lanyard. I was just a regular attendee with a dream and a notebook. But here is the secret: I didn't just watch. I studied. I looked around the room and realized that the people on stage weren't aliens. They were just people who had figured out a system and—more importantly—had built a network.

Watch How Katrina transforms lives with Funding powered by our Funding Machine! Team, happy Friday. As you head into the weekend, I want to share something that fires me up. The world loves to tell entrepreneurs to "just pull themselves up by their bootstraps." We all know what that really means: "Good luck, you're on your own." It's hollow advice, and it's what keeps people stuck. We are in the business of offering a real option. Our partner Katrina shared this, and it perfectly captures the "why" behind this whole mission. She was on a call with a client who had only ever been told to "bootstrap." When Katrina showed them a real, strategic funding path, the client was in tears of relief. https://www.myfundingmachine.com/tears-of-relief That's the ballgame, right there. "It's a life changing thing." Never forget that you aren't just pushing paper. You are the person on the other end of the phone who is changing the trajectory of someone's life. This is our passion, and this is our calling. Go out there today and be someone's "life-changing" call. Let's get it. - Leo

Team, As you're prepping for the week, I want you to ask yourselves a serious question. How much "employee brain" malware is still running in your head? We're all infected with it. It's the "gospel" we were taught by our parents, our teachers, and those gurus on the radio. It's the doctrine that tells us to play it safe, to "manage" our 401(k)s, and that the ultimate prize is a "debt-free" house. That is the Consumer's American Dream. It's a dream of consumption. We are not consumers. We are builders. We are capitalists. We are Funding CEOs. Our dream is one of creation. The consumer brain fears debt. It sees a 20% APR and panics. The builder brain uses debt. It sees a 15x ROL (Return on Loan) and builds an empire. I just put the finishing touches on a new article that I consider essential reading for this community. It's a deep-dive on how to purge that old "good vs. bad debt" lie and replace it with the single most powerful metric for entrepreneurs: ROL. https://www.myfundingmachine.com/post/why-good-debt-vs-bad-debt-is-a-stupid-argument This is the mindset shift that separates 6-figure side hustles from 7-figure empires. My challenge to you this week: Read this. Find one "consumer" thought you're still holding onto and replace it with a "builder" calculation. Let me know your take in the comments below!

As we gear up for the next 5-Day Challenge starting this Monday (10/20), I want to share two of the most powerful stories from our community. First up, you've got Francois. He talks about the 'why'—the real, human reason we're all in this game. For him, it was about being the hero for his family. His story is about that incredible feeling when a system actually starts to work. Then, you have Ryan Lind, who brings the hard numbers. He breaks down the math of a 'parabolic rise,' going from a solid $50k/month to clearing over $100k/month, month after month after month. This is the perfect picture of what's possible: the purpose that drives you and the system that pays you. Watch both of these and get fired up. See the proof for yourself. After you watch, drop a comment below: Which story hits you harder today—the 'why' or the 'how'?