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Today we have an incredible guest who is truly a master in the world of high-performance coaching and wealth strategy. Trevor McGregor is joining us, truly his knowledge and experience is nothing short of remarkable.
With over 35,000 hours of coaching experience, Trevor has worked with clients including Fortune 500 executives, high-level real estate investors, and world-class athletes. They all seek out Trevor for one reason: life-changing transformation. He’s a true expert in unlocking hidden potential and helping individuals achieve more success, wealth, freedom, and contribution than they ever thought possible.
In our conversation, Trevor emphasized the immense power of coaching in harnessing your potential. With his extensive experience, he highlighted how mindset and taking action can provide a structured path to success, helping individuals to break through their limitations and achieve their most ambitious goals.
He also discussed the importance of self-discovery and how identifying and harnessing your unique strengths and talents can lead to unprecedented success and fulfillment. He shared practical strategies for unlocking one’s true power and achieving extraordinary results.
In This Episode
- The early challenges in his life and how it became a pivotal moment to his transformation.
- Trevor’s core mission of helping individuals realize their hidden potential
- Strategies for self-discovery and harnessing unique strengths and talents
- Actionable steps in creating valuable habits to master your life path
Trevor, welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me, Dave. It’s an honor and a pleasure to be here with you.
I’m grateful to have you on the show, Trevor. I’ve been looking forward to this discussion for a while, and I know the audience is going to love this one. For folks who don’t know you, or haven’t heard about your background, let’s start things off with your journey. Tell us how you got here.
Thank you so much. It’s an interesting story. When I share it, I’m always fascinated by where we start, and where we get to. I’m no different. I am Canadian. I’ll just get that out of the way. Born and raised in Canada. As any Canadian boy is born, my brother and I are on skates at the age of three. I always thought I’d be an NHL Hockey player, Dave.
Because Canada is synonymous with Hockey, as you know, and we all want to grow up and be the next Wayne Gretzky. That’s what I excelled at in my early years, it was sports. I was often playing at a high level, I was often captain of the team, and I had the speed, but I didn’t have the size. As I became a teenager and started to figure out that maybe this NHL thing wasn’t going to pan out.
Where focus goes, energy flows.
I went to college, went to university, got a business degree, and then went to work in corporate like most people do. I became the Executive Director of Operations for a fairly large size hospitality company. That’s where I cut my teeth in business.
It was around that time that the business owners came to me and they had a big expansion plan. They said, “Trevor, we love what you’re doing. We’re growing this across five major cities in Canada. Would you be interested in investing in our growth plan?” I thought, “Wow. I’d love to.”
I started to think that this was my big chance to start making some real money. I was married, and I had two kids at the time. What I did is I took all my money, and I cashed in my savings, I cashed in my 401(k). I even convinced my parents who loved and believed in me to take out a six-figure second mortgage on the family home. I dumped all of that money into this expansion plan. For the first couple of years, things went great until they didn’t.
To make a long story short, we were expanding way too fast. We were too aggressive. All of that came down like a house of cards. I lost all of that money at the age of 30. All of it was gone and it became a very low point in my life. I wasn’t even sure where I was going to go from there. Does that land with you?
Yes, it does.
What does anyone do when they’re down and out? You seek guidance. Thank goodness, I found a coach. That coach was an amazing man. He was in Vancouver. He said, “What’s happened to you, Trevor is unfortunate, but you’re still a young man. You got to get up, dust yourself off, and keep finding a way to move forward.” I said, “I’d love to but I don’t know what I’m going to do.” He said one thing to me that changed my life forever. He said, “Have you ever thought of investing in Real estate?”
I said, “Real estate? I don’t know anything about Real estate.” He said, “You can use Other People’s Money (OPM) to buy a property, fix it up, rent it, rehab it, or refi it, and then take that money and keep doing it.” At the time, my back was up against the wall. I scraped together a little bit of money from family and friends and bought my first property. That was a great experience because Vancouver, Canada was seeing a massive upheaval in appreciation.
When you’re defiantly committed to something, the universe starts to bring the right people and the right opportunities.
I took the money out of that, bought another property, took the money out of that, and bought my first Duplex. I don’t know about you, but man, I discovered what Cash Flow was at that time. I started doing all of this stuff and bought another duplex, another one, and some Fourplexes, then built an empire. In just two and a half years, not only did I have a wonderful cash-flowing Real estate portfolio, but I paid back all of my failed loans, including my parents’.
That’s where the story gets interesting because it was at that time other people started to come to me as well and say, “Trevor, how are you buying these properties? How are you doing this?” I’d say, “Buy me a drink. I’ll sit down and share my blueprint with you.” That’s exactly what started happening with my son’s Baseball coach, and my son’s Soccer coach. As I started to show them how I was doing it, I felt like I was coaching them.
I think that that’s when the Coaching bug bit because they went out there and started to achieve some success in Real estate. Shortly after that, I was working with my own Tony Robbins coach at the time who was fascinated with me, my Real estate, my background in corporate, and my passion for people. He said, “Tony is hiring part-time coaches to come in and support Tony’s business division. Would you consider putting in an application?” I thought, “I don’t have any formal coaching experience”. But he said, “Don’t worry about it.”
I threw in an application. When you do that, you don’t just become a coach. You have to read all the books, go to all the seminars, and listen to all the CDs at the time. Right now, they’re MP3s. I did all that. I was shortlisted from 500 applicants down to 250. 250 down to 100. 100 down to 50. That’s when you go and you do your practicum. I flew to Florida, where you are. I did my practicum with Tony’s team.
When the dust settled, I graduated as the number two guy in the class, and they offered me a full-time position. That’s when I jumped at the chance to work for the man, the myth, the legend – Tony Robbins. Since that time, I’ve now done somewhere close to 40,000 Coaching sessions. That’s with people all over the world who are in business. They’re entrepreneurial, they’re Real estate investors, they’re doctors, attorneys. It has become my passion. I hung out with Tony for half a decade, then I went out on my own and started Trevor McGregor International.
For the committed, there is always a way
Now I work with people like yourself and other people who are at that level where they know that there’s more to go in their careers, finances, Real estate, health, relationships, and traveling the world. That’s ultimately what I do daily now. That’s a long story, but it is a complete snapshot of where I was growing up in Canada to where I am today.
What an amazing journey, Trevor. It’s interesting how life unfolds in chapters. You get these different choices and one thing leads to another. I wasn’t exactly sure of how you were into real estate or coaching first, but it’s cool how those two created a synergy for you and then ultimately shaped your massive transformational purpose, right?
That’s true. I would have never been able to see it back then, but it’s when you’re defiantly committed to something, the universe starts to bring the right people and the right opportunities. Since that time, I think as you know, we’ve gone on and invested in many different Asset classes throughout the US and around the world – whether that’s multifamily apartments all over Texas or Florida, the Carolinas or Nashville.
From self-storage in Key West to agricultural land in Colorado, to retreat centers in Costa Rica. My wife and I have even invested in a startup here in Australia, where I’m coming to you from today, that builds Modular Housing. It’s been able to see what allows people to achieve phenomenal levels of success, as well as, what holds people back.
It’s powerful when I’ve had this process and this roadmap with business, Real estate, and coaching to help other people climb what I call the ladder of success and have tremendous fulfillment, wealth, freedom, and joy on the other side of it.
Exactly. That’s what it’s all about, right? It’s all about creating those freedoms in your life. I love how you have a focus on high performance and mindset. That’s the first phase in my book, The Holistic Wealth Strategy. It’s all about your mindset.
I just think of the difference between someone you went to high school with, who’s probably in the same town, same set of friends, same job. You look at Elon Musk’s, what he’s doing, his book, by the way, that just came out is phenomenal. What’s the difference? It’s all about mindset.
That’s it. I love that because that’s what they call me. They call me the “Mindset Master”. A lot of it comes from Tony, but a lot of it comes from reading books like Think and Grow Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad, or listening to the audio – The Strangest Secret in the World by Earl Nightingale because where focus goes, energy flows.
We look at your success, my success, Tony Robbins’s success, Richard Branson‘s, Elon Musk’s, they weren’t just interested, they were committed. If not, what I call being defiantly committed to doing whatever it takes to keep climbing the mountain. I’m a big believer that for all of us, it’s a series of peaks and valleys.
Elon Musk is a great example. When he started PayPal, he had to take on the mindset that he was going up against all the other payment systems in America and the world. Or start SolarCity, he’s going to take on all the power companies.
Or start Tesla, he’s got to take on GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda. That is easy unless you condition your mind to be able to do it. Or SpaceX, now he buys Twitter (X), and he’s taken on social media. All of these things would not be possible for anyone without understanding what Tony teaches, which is success is 80% mindset, and then 20% mechanics. Would you agree with that, Dave?
A hundred percent, Trevor. I’d like to unpack this a little bit more and talk about Investor psychology and mindset because this is at the core of investing. Where, frankly, most of America has got it wrong. When I started my journey, it was back in 2000, the tech bubble was happening.
Every time I put money into the Stock market, I lost. It was awful. It was a terrible feeling. I felt that it was so rigged at the time. It’s fascinating in my journey, trying to uncover all these different rocks about investing in Syndications and Multifamily, like self-storage you talked about, and some of these other Asset classes that we have.
But I’ve had to look under rocks, I’ve had to look hard. I’ve had to build amazing relationships in alternative spaces. I’ve had to change my thinking to make that paradigm shift to do that. When we talk to new investors, 90% of the people are still under the old paradigm of, “I’m not smart enough to manage my own money. So I’m going to have a financial planner do that for me”.
“It’s too risky to invest in Real estate because my financial planner doesn’t think it’s a good idea.” There are a lot of limiting beliefs people have and things that we’ve been taught by our parents, our peers, and our colleagues like, “Why aren’t you investing in your 401(k)?” What do you think is at the core of holding people back, Trevor?
You’ve teed up the ball perfectly for a guy like me because we’re going to have some fun with this and you’ve opened up three loops. The first thing that I think of with your story, is you lifting the rocks, you investing in the Stock market and that money goes bye-bye. I always have said, and this comes from Napoleon Hill from Think and Grow Rich, that “There is no failure, there’s only feedback.”
As entrepreneurs, startups, real estate investors, or human beings that want to leave the corporate world and maybe have a W-2, but long to become an entrepreneur. I’ve never met anybody, including myself that didn’t have some ups and downs, some loop-de-loops, almost like a roller coaster along the way.
The first thing I would say to anyone before is to be very careful that you’re not labeling something you’ve done or seen somebody else do as a failure because as entrepreneurs, there is no failure. There’s only feedback.
Any comment about that to kick off the first of three loops there?
Joe Polish talks about that all the time as well. It’s all about learning. As an entrepreneur, you’re constantly in a learning phase. If you’re not learning, you’re not innovating, you’re not making progress.
That’s exactly right. Joe knows his stuff. A good friend of Tony Robbins as well, Dan Sullivan from The Strategic Coach and all of it. That’s awesome. That leads us to number two, that we are all people who rationalize. If you break that word into two, we often tell ourselves rational lies. We lie to ourselves that we’re too young, we’re too old, we’re not educated enough, we’re educated too much, or “I’ve got it good in my W-2. I should be happy with what I’ve gotten.”
This is the work of our Saboteur brain instead of our wise sage. The saboteur wants to hold you back and throws all of these limiting beliefs at you because it doesn’t want you to get ahead. It’s like a thermostat. If we’re set for 72 degrees and we want to get up to 80, we might do some things that can take us up to 80, but we’ll sabotage that success and come right back to 72 degrees.
For average people, they just say, “72 degrees is not that bad. It’s not too chilly in the room. It’s not as hot as I want it. It’s better than nothing. At least I’ve got a roof over my head.” If limiting beliefs are the work of the saboteur, we also have to remember that there’s a polar opposite to everything on the planet. It’s called, The Law of Polarity.
I’ll give you some examples. You can’t have day without night, you can’t have black without white, or you can’t have masculine energy without feminine energy, and you can’t have the North Pole without the South Pole. What’s that got to do with anything? Well, you can’t have the saboteur limiting belief brain without the polar opposite of that being available for all of us as well, which is what we call the wise sage. It’s the wisdom, it’s not just you thinking in your head, but also in your heart and your gut about what it is that you’re trying to do and why you want it.
Intelligent means smart, and inspired means doing something because you get to, not because you have to.
That opens up loop three, that when the WHY is big enough, the HOW’S starts to present itself. If you want to be successful in the Stock market, in Real estate, in Cryptocurrency, or in whatever Asset class you’re in, you’ve got to go out there and believe that somebody out there has already achieved what it is that you failed at. Again, you haven’t failed, you just got some feedback.
That’s where coaching, mentoring, masterminds, meetups, or conferences are the things that I would recommend to anybody who wants to go further. This is all about turning what we call, decades into days. I don’t want it to take ten years for somebody to have to figure this out. I want it to be something that they can do easily and effortlessly to be able to quantum leap where they are to start moving in the direction they want to go.
The number two is, that the saboteurs and the limiting beliefs of all these rational lies we tell ourselves are in play. But before I talk a little bit more about the why, any reflection on loop number two, Dave?
That makes perfect sense. The only thing I would interject there that can help people and helped me as well is, it’s understanding your Why. I know Tony talks about that a lot as well. It’s when you can understand the purpose that you have in that, have crystal clear clarity on what the vision is that you have for your life, you can bust down walls. You can create things out of nothing. But if you don’t have that, and you’re not expanding your mind, you’re just making linear progress at best.
That’s exactly it. That’s what loop three is, what is your big fat compelling reason why you want it? It’s not the money we want. It’s what we can do with the money. Whether we can use it to live a better quality of life, give some of it away, do some charity work, or travel the world. That’s what’s sparked my wife and me to step up, work hard play hard, and share what we’re doing with other people because how you do anything is how you do everything.
Once you stop telling yourself the rational lies, once you access the powerful sage, and once you go back to the powers in the WHY, and not just a surface level WHY, but big fat compelling reasons. Like number one, “I wanted it for this reason”, number two, number three, number four, and number five. I encourage people to get to at least seven deep layers of the why, and then not just forget about it, but make sure that they’re revisiting that WHY daily.
I’ve seen it working with so many people around the planet that when times get tough, you get tired, you hit a roadblock or an obstacle. When you go back to the WHY and you reread what it is that you wanted in the first place, again, like me, when I was married with two kids and I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do, when the WHY is big enough, you get up, you dust yourself off and you keep on keeping on.
Those are the three loops and there are many different things that we can sprinkle in to support anyone who’s listening to, “What’s the first step to all of that?” Where would you like to go with that, Dave?
I was trying to break this down for folks, so they can put it into some actionable steps. I’m sure you’ve got a myriad of thinking tools and strategies. If someone is trying to get clarity on their WHY and some of those steps, do you have something specific for them to break down?
For high performers, it’s not the winds that determine where they end up, but the set of their sail.
I do. Before we get to that, I’m a bit of a brain guy. I’m fascinated with how the human brain works and why humans think and behave the way they do. People need to understand that the human brain has anywhere from 60 to 80,000 thoughts a day. Get your head around these 60 to 80,000 thoughts a day.
Some of us are conscious like, “What are we going to do for dinner?”, “Are my kids safe from all of these unconscious things?” Where the heart beats and the lungs are taking in oxygen, and the eyeballs are growing new cells and all of these things? I can also tell you that Science has found that roughly 75 percent of those thoughts are negative or survival-based. When you think about three-quarters of what we’re thinking a day is negative or survival-based, we’re already behind the eight ball in terms of trying to find the positive given that this is a world of noise and craziness going on all over this planet.
But it’s not what happens externally, it’s what we’re doing internally. You have to ask yourself, “What are my thoughts?” Because your thoughts lead to feelings, and your feelings lead to emotions. This is the first part of this, where I’ll share the key six things that help people achieve success.
You brought up Elon Musk and we’ve talked about him. What he thinks, or that thought becomes the feeling, that feeling becomes an emotion, and our emotions do something called – motivate us. If your thoughts, feelings, and emotions aren’t motivating you to get out and do something, they’re probably motivating you to sit on the couch and watch Netflix. That’s not what high performers do.
If your thoughts lead to feelings and your feelings to emotions, and you elevate your emotions, you get fired up about what you could do or have, and you get motivated. I guarantee you, you’re going to go out there and want to take action. If we all go out there and take action, we’re going to get a certain result. I’m going to recap that – your thoughts are to feelings, feelings to emotions, your emotions motivate you. If you get motivated, you’re going to go out there and take action that gets a certain result.
What’s great about that is if you want to reverse engineer it and you know you want to buy Real estate, you know you want to travel, you know you want to start an Ecommerce business, you know you want to diversify Asset classes. If you want that result, you have to take action by getting motivated, by elevating your emotions that get elevated by the feelings and the thoughts that you’re having.
‘Should,’ ‘ought to,’ and ‘try’ are weak forms of commitment
At the end of the day, there’s a roadmap and a recipe, and it starts with this three-pound mass between our ears called our brain that oftentimes isn’t thinking the right thoughts. I’ll bring you back in for any reflection on that. Then I’ll give the keys to the kingdom on where we go with that.
I love it, Trevor. Just to go back on that, it’s interesting once you can make that connection that understand the human species. Our brains are hardwired to do only two things: It’s procreate and sense danger. The majority of people in this country, sadly, do not move away from sensing danger. They’re always looking for danger. They complain.
They surround themselves with friends, they create drama around all of that. But the brain is also the neuroplasticity of your blank brain, and, amazingly, you can condition your subconscious, as well as your conscious to move past that. That’s why we like to talk about your values, your habits, your goals, who you spend time with.
Secondly, Trevor, I’d like to take us on a little bit of a diversion right here, because I think it’s just so relevant to this conversation that we’re having that’s fascinating is, if you turn on the CNN, any of these media outlets, or even take your financial networks. What is the thing that sells? It’s all about sensationalism.
Right now, every day you go on, there’s something about an impending recession, the jobs markets were horrible. There’s a war going on. There’s all of these things. You have to realize that these people are trying to sell and influence you. Politicians are trying to influence you, the media. But I think as investors, we become very scared when we hear about all this news.
You’ll just say, “I’m going to convert everything into gold and then go hide in my bunker.” This is such an opportunity to push past this with your mindset, create an all-weather portfolio, and not get sucked into all that drama. Thoughts?
My goodness, you’re singing from my song sheet here, Dave. The media’s job is to distract you. The media’s job is sensationalism. The media’s job is to get you to not pay attention. It brings up a great quote from Jim Rohn, who was Tony Robbin’s coach. I’m sure you’re familiar with Jim, who said, “It’s not the winds that blow on you that will determine where you end up, it’s the set of the sail.” I love that quote. It’s one of my favorite quotes. It’s the header on my Facebook page.
Who’s responsible for setting your sail? You are. I’m responsible for mine, and the listeners are responsible for his or hers. We got a lot of wind blowing from CNN – constant negative news, or anytime you turn on anything. Tony Robbins calls the television, the electronic income reducer.
Your word is your wand. Speak in empowering language and you’ll begin to focus on what you want. Move the body, move the mind.
Because it’s true that if you get caught up in what they’re saying, you’re in trouble. Again, we got the economic wind, we got the interest rate wind, we got the cap rate wind, we got these storms in California and Florida, we got fires in Hawaii, we got President Biden and (Donald) Trump, and all of this craziness going on around the world. For high performers, it’s not those winds that are blowing that will determine where they end up, it’s the set of their sail.
When you go back to the mindset, you’re spot on about who’s responsible for reading the right books, and listening to the right podcasts like this excellent show. What rooms are you in? What conferences? Who are your coaches? Who are your mentors? Who are your accountability buddies? Are you getting some thinking time so that you’re not running around like a chicken with your head cut off, but getting some time to sit quietly and get crystal clear on who you are, what you want, and why you want it?
Then the most important thing is, who do you need to be to pursue it? Because oftentimes we don’t think that we could have it. There’s this great quote from Tony as well that says, “People often overestimate what they can do in a short period, but they underestimate what they can do in a longer period.” If you’re listening to the news, you’re reading the paper, and you’re hanging out with the wrong people, there’s no way you’re going to optimize and maximize this brain for what’s possible.
A hundred percent. I couldn’t agree more with that, Trevor. It’s amazing what happens with the people you hang out with. That’s another great Jim Rohn quote, “You’re a product of the five people that you spend most of your time with.” Are those people elevating you towards your goals or are they taking you back further away from your vision of what you’re trying to achieve?
That’s so good. It also boils down to four little words that I use with my clients. I’m sure you’re familiar with these four words and they all start with the letter S as in superhero because it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, doesn’t matter if you’re in America or Australia, doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, educated or not educated, these four things are universal. If you’re open to it, I think we should share with the listener four key areas they need to zone in on to continue to optimize and maximize the brain and its performance. How does that sound?
If we’re going to practice gratitude, let’s all commit to making time for a forgiveness practice as well.
Let’s do it.
All right, these come partially from Tony and partially from me. Again, all of the work that I’ve done with high performers all over this beautiful blue planet. The four words are as follows, and then we’ll unpack them. The first one is your state. That refers to your state management, how you’re showing up in your mind and your body. The second one is your story. Your story is what you continually tell yourself. It is your identity of who you are in the moment.
The state is number one, and the story is number two. The third one is your standards because I can look at anybody and tell that the quality of their life will be in direct proportion to the standard that they set and hold for themselves. Then that fourth S is your strategy. It’s what are you doing to go from here to here? Are you winging it, or are you following a blueprint, a roadmap, or a recipe?
With all of those things, as we look at your state, your story, your standards, and your strategy, that shows me how you’re going to do it because ultimately most people are walking around in an unresourceful state. They’re in poor physiology, they’re tired, they’re overworked, they’re putting up with their grouchy spouse and their misbehaving kids, getting yelled at by the boss, and getting stuck in traffic.
All of that is turning into angst where their physiology, their focus, or their language is not where it needs to be. When you let focus and language, and if I walk down any street in America today, and I’m not picking on Americans, we could pick on Canadians or Australians or anyone. But if I listen to where people have their focus and what language they’re using, I hear things like “Why am I so broke?”, or “Why am I so fat?”, or “Why am I so lonely?”
All their brain here is broken, fat, and lonely. Instead of shifting that focus from disempowering to empowering where they say, “How can I become abundant?,” or “How can I get into great shape?”, or “How can I have a great relationship with my significant other?” We know that we’re focused goes energy flows, and most people are focused on why it’s not going to work, why it’s going to be too much, why they’re going to lose money if they try.
What people are going to think about them because criticism is a big thing these days with social media, and everything in between. If you guys want to change your state, you have to change your physiology. That means you have to get up and move, you got to hydrate, you got to take care of the body, you got to take care of the mind, and you got to focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. You have to become what I call your – language police.
If you catch yourself saying things like, “I really should do this”, “I ought to do that”, or “Tomorrow, I’ll try this”. Should, ought to, and try are weak forms of commitment in my world, where you got to stop that nonsense. You got to start saying, “I’ve got this. I’m doing it today, I will, I own this. I’m going to reach out for help from my colleagues”. Your word is your wand. The more you start speaking in an empowering language, the more you start thinking about what you want. The more you move the body, the more you move the mind.
If limiting beliefs are the work of the saboteur, we must also remember that there is a polar opposite to everything on the planet.
That’s spot on, Trevor. I would like to unpack the state a little bit. What do you do to keep your state up? What is your morning routine, for instance? For myself, creating a solid morning routine has been just instrumental in how I can own the day and set myself up. It’s always about exercise. I remember reading Tony’s books years ago and I always thought he was crazy when he jumped in a pool at 55 degrees. That’s nuts.
Today, I’ve been in my cold plunge, that’s 44 degrees every morning. But I got to tell you, you are just on fire for the day and what it does to you mentally and change your state. Then also how powerful meditation is to get clarity of your thoughts.
You have intentionality with what you’re doing. Journaling is another one. That’s the key. People can set themselves up. I call my morning routine, “My Morning Success Routine” for the day. Any thoughts in terms of your morning success routine?
Absolutely. First off, congratulations to you, because you’ve got a wonderful morning routine going on. It’s the same with me. I get up every morning at 4:44 am, seven days a week. Even if it’s a holiday or weekend. Because I’ve conditioned my mind, body, and identity to say that high performers get up and do things that average people are not willing to do. Everybody that thinks they’re a rock star because they’re in the 5 am club, how about you raise the bar and get up 16 minutes earlier?
4:44 am I get up, I use the restroom, and I have a glass of lemon water to alkalize my body. Then it’s right into the meditation chair for 20 minutes. It could be Transcendental meditation, it could be Guided meditation, it can be a Silent meditation. I’m big into Dr. Joe Dispenza’s meditations. Whatever you do, you’ve got to start by conditioning the mind. From there, it is either reading something for 10 to 15 minutes or watching some motivational stuff on YouTube.
Then it’s immediately into the workout. I have a home gym. Whether I’m doing cardio or weights, that’s usually a 20 to 30-minute workout. Then it’s boom into the shower, ready for my bulletproof coffee because I love coffee early in the morning. Then, man, I sit down at my desk where most people sit at their desks and go, “Where do I start my day?”
I’ve already planned it out the night before so that when I sit down at my desk, I know exactly what I’m doing with emails, what I’m doing in Real estate, what my coaching calls look like for that day, my consulting calls, my speaking, summit that I am at. All of those things are pre-planned and then it’s rinse and repeat seven days a week.
That sounds awesome, Trevor. Tell me this, how do you manage being a coach, you’re living on two sides of the globe right now. Travel is taxing and the schedule that you keep up with. How have you been able to manage your state right with intense bouts of travel, work, and things like that?
It’s a great question. It’s not going to be the answer that you think it is, but it boils down to your identity. It’s your story. Most people write a story that is, “When I travel, I get jet lag”, or “When I travel, I don’t eat that well”, or “When I travel, the gyms are crowded.” They insert an excuse here.
For people like Elon Musk, Tony Robbins, Richard Branson, and Oprah Winfrey, the people who have achieved phenomenal levels of success, it all boils down to that second S, which is your story. What story are you telling yourself? Is that true? Is it true that your workout has to suffer? Is it true that all jet lag is created equal whether you’re going east or west? It’s different for different people.
I’ve got to that point after traveling around this beautiful blue planet, quite regularly with my wife and my three boys. Ultimately, I let my identity dictate what I’m going to get up and do and what I’m not going to do.
Where there’s passion, there’s purpose. Where there’s passion and purpose, there is profit.
That’s so powerful, Trevor. Conditioning your mind to be able to do that. I love that.
You bet. That does take us to the second S, which is your story. I’ll bottom line it for all of the listeners out there, that sometimes we’re going to be in the story and the identity of being a victim to what’s going on out there. Or we can choose to step out of being a victim and into “Victor” – on our way to victory. At the end of the day, your glass is either half empty or it’s half full. Whereas I don’t even like that analogy.
I like to think of my glasses of plum full. As I keep pouring on it, it creates a meniscus of water that spills over the sides. I don’t let that water spill. I have a bowl underneath my cup where I catch it. Whereas if I keep pouring into my identity and my story, and then that water that spills over gets into my bowl, I call that bowl “The Giving Bowl”, where then I go give it to my clients, I give it to my tenants, I give it to my investors, I give it to my wife, Lisa, or our three boys, Matthew, Mitchell, and Maxwell.
Anybody who will listen can take that identity water, start to look inside, and see that we’re all entrepreneurs at heart. We all want to make more money. We all want to have more time and freedom. We all want more travel freedom. We all want more impact. We all want more time hanging with people. I call those The Five Freedoms. I love them because if you think about any client that I’ve coached or anybody in your network or tribe, I’ll bet they’re after those same five things.
Number one, again, is financial freedom. Are you telling yourself a story about why you can’t have it or why you’re moving towards it? Number two is time freedom. Most people say, “I’m different”, “You just don’t understand”, “I’ve got four kids”, or “I don’t speak the language. I was born in India.” Relevant but irrelevant if that story is holding you back.
You’ve got to remember if number one is financial freedom, number two is time freedom, and number three for most people is geographical or location freedom. If you’re in Florida or you’re in Italy, or I’m in Canada, Australia, or Hong Kong, I believe that high performers are meant to travel because that also leads to four and five. Once we have financial freedom, time freedom, and geographical freedom, we move to number four, which is what I call freedom to impact.
Because when you’ve got money, time, and the ability to go anywhere, you can make more impact with charities, mission trips, organizations, or masterminds somewhere on this beautiful blue planet and make a meaningful difference. Then that takes us to number five, which is what I call freedom of relationships, not freedom from, but freedom of where you get to hang out with awesome guys like Dave, awesome guys at Strategic Coach, awesome guys in Gobundance, or TIGER21.
It’s not to make your family, your friends good or bad, or right or wrong. But let’s be honest, if you want to live your best life, you’ve got to surround your people, yourself with people that are already living or moving towards their best life. Those are, again, what I call the “Five Freedoms” and your story is either consistent with you moving towards that or declaring all the reasons why something’s different for you and you can’t.
It resonates so much, Trevor. Going back a little, I’ve got something unpacked for each one of them. One, number three, that comes to mind for me that’s been impactful is developing a gratitude practice. Sadly, so many people can be struck with fear or anger in their lives.
When you have gratitude, you can’t be angry. You can’t be fearful. Developing a deep gratitude practice is super powerful. Then that leads to this abundance mindset as well. That was the imagery I got, as you were describing, the water is tipping over at the cup and having so much abundance.
It’s so interesting, Trevor. It’s counterintuitive. It was never taught to us in schools or anywhere else. It’s like Zig Ziglar’s quote. Ziggy says, “If you help enough other people get what they want, you’ll get what you want.” It’s so counterintuitive. The corporate world, the machine, nothing operates that.
I jump out of bed early because I love helping people. It is so rewarding. Then to see other people make progress. Look what Tony’s done with the meals for people. That’s why he says he’s never worked a day in his life, because he’s on a mission. He’s completely driven by a mission that is so much bigger than him. I think if more people understood that, had that purpose, and that power, wow. What a difference.
When you have an attitude of gratitude—thanking the universe daily for all the good in your life—it’s like resetting the central nervous system, which is the foundation of everything we’re built on.
I love it, Dave. You’re singing again from my song sheet. I’ll stack on what you said even more because I like to think of gratitude as part one of what we call the Trifecta. If you think about a triangle or something that has three sides, there’s no question that gratitude is the foundation of that triangle or that triad. The human brain cannot be in a state of gratitude and a state of fear at the same time. It’s physiologically impossible.
When you have an attitude of gratitude, when you thank the universe for all of the good in your life and you do that daily, there’s nothing better than resetting the central nervous system because it’s the foundation of everything we’re on. Part two of that triad is what I call forgiveness.
Forgiveness, because if we’re going to do gratitude, let’s go up a level and start to have a forgiveness practice where I’ll bet people like you, the listener, or even myself are still harboring ill will towards somebody or something. Who’s wronged you that you’re still hanging on to it? When did you lose money that you’re still blaming, shaming, and justifying? What did your ex-spouse do that has hurt you? A previous boss member, somebody in your community, or some gossip that went on? Because ultimately for you to hang on to that, it creates what we call an acid ash in the system.
That’s where dis (this) ease or disease comes from. It comes from a disturbance in the mind. If we’re going to do gratitude, let’s all commit to having a little bit of time to have a forgiveness practice as well.
I love that, Trevor. To give listeners an idea of how simple this is to impart in your life. One of the practices that we’ve created is, that we talk about gratitude whenever I have a meal with my family or we walk the dog with my wife. We talked about what we were grateful for that day, and what are our wins. We also start at work, we start every meeting that we have in the company with the same thing.
We talk about how gratitude could be personal, professional wins, and your gratitude. Wow, what a game-changing difference so that we’re all coming from the same space of positivity and gratitude. Anything is possible versus the opposite, which is focusing on what didn’t work out and how are we going to fix that problem. It completely makes the shift.
Absolutely. Kudos to you and your team. There’s a great quote from the big man, Tony Robbins, where he says, “What’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right.” For me, I try to do at least 50 gratitude reps a day. What’s a gratitude rep? I’ll be grateful to have clean drinking water in my glass, I’m grateful for the ink in the pen that allows me to take notes.
Or I’m grateful for the stickiness on the back of a Post-It Note for goodness’ sake. It’s the little things and it only takes me two or three seconds to say “thank you”. Maybe I’m biting into a crunchy apple. Maybe I’m thanking the gardeners for taking care of the yard or the guy coming to service the pool, whatever it is. If you challenge yourself to have gratitude and you forgive, and you practice having these small gratitude reps every day, your whole physiology changes for the better.
I couldn’t agree more. I’ll throw out one more example that folks can try as well that’s fun. Express gratitude towards the people around you. Try every day to tell someone at work or your family how much you appreciate them, or what they do. Seeing the amount of difference that makes in that person’s day and the respect that they have for you, the mutual respect, it’s a game changer.
I love that. High tide lifts all boats. It does, so you share it. That takes us to the final side of the triangle. If we’ve got gratitude at the bottom, and forgiveness on one side, what goes on the other side? Well, that’s what we call total self-care. That is, you’re running around helping everyone else, but what are you doing for you? Are you taking care of your body or your temple? Are you hydrating? Are you getting some quiet time? Are you getting a massage once in a while? Are you spending time doing a sport or a hobby that you love, like cycling? Are you lighting a gratitude candle and being grateful for all of the good in your world that you’re working on or you’re striving to become?
The world is sped up so fast and we’ve got people that aren’t anywhere on this triangle. They’re not doing gratitude. They’re not practicing forgiveness and they’re not taking care of what ultimately is the most important person to yourself, which is YOU. That creates a better version of you to then take care of your family, your spouse, your kids, your community, your tenants, your employees, and everyone in the community. As we get ready to move back to the Four S’s, your state and your story will be radically affected by this triad of gratitude, forgiveness, and total self-care. Are you ready for number three?
Go for it.
The third S in these Four S’s was your standards. I’m going to bottom line it, that I can tell the quality of someone’s life by the level that they commit to play at. If you are somebody who gets up at 7:30 in the morning, you rush off to the office, and you’re not kind to your spouse, your kids, or your employees, maybe it’s time for you to raise the bar and raise your standards.
If you’re not working out, if you’re not donating to charity, If you’re not reading the right books, getting in the right rooms, or listening to great podcasts, when would be a good time to raise your standards? I believe that we are all here on purpose, and with purpose to do nothing but grow. That includes believing that there’s another level for us to play at. Think about something in your life right now where maybe it’s time to draw that line in the sand and step over that line to a higher standard, never to return to the lower standard again.
If you challenge yourself to cultivate gratitude, forgive, and practice these small gratitude exercises daily, your entire physiology changes for the better.
Is it easy? No. Is it possible? Yes. That’s why working with an accountability partner, a coach, a mentor, a facilitator, a trainer, or somebody can help you not only get to that level but feel the juice, the joy, the passion, and the fulfillment that comes from staying and playing at that level. Similar to what you do, Dave, how would you speak to number three, and what are your standards?
I couldn’t agree more. I was in the Marine Corps as an officer. I equate that to values as well, Trevor. It’s interesting even in the world of investing and Real estate. My first filter for working with partners, it’s all about standards and values alignment.
If we don’t even have alignment and values, I won’t even continue the discussion because it doesn’t make sense. Then that ties back to what you talked about earlier, which is having that freedom of relationship and only working with people that you choose to work with. That’s going to be mutually beneficial, you’re aligned with the values. That hits home. I love the context of creating that triad and then how that supports the other factors. Great thinking tool there.
Absolutely. Thank you for that. It’s something that you’re either going to go, “These are interesting concepts, Dave and Trevor, thank you very much.” Or you’re going to do what I call taking a personal inventory. Where are you showing up in your state most of the time on a scale of one to ten? Where’s your story most of the time on a scale of one to ten? What level of standards are you committing to play at, traditionally on a scale of one to ten?
Those three things precede, David. Number four, which is your strategy. You never want to get to number four, without first saying, “Where’s my focus? What language am I using? Where’s my body? Where’s my spirit?” Number two, “Where’s my story and my identity? Am I a victim or a victor? Am I singing from the song sheet of being a true entrepreneur like Elon, Tony, Oprah, Steve Jobs, or Richard Branson?” You can do some character trait integration there.
Ultimately, it’s your standards because those three things are what’s important for you to then choose a strategy and execute it. Because a strategy is simple. It’s again, like you said, finding somebody out there who’s already done what it is you’re trying to do, whether that comes from a coach, a book, an entrepreneur, a company, an e-comm course.
There’s very little that hasn’t been achieved before. You’re looking to think of a strategy as having a roadmap, a recipe, a blueprint, or in today’s world – a GPS that takes you from where you are to where you want to be. There’s a seven-step process that I teach. It comes partially from Tony and partially from me where, and you’re talking about your strategy, you got to know step one, which is what is your outcome? That is, what are you trying to achieve? You got to know your outcome. You got to know the end game.
Number two is, why do you want that outcome? What is your why? We’re going back to that when times get tough, you get tired, or you hit the wall. The why is going to keep you moving forward. If I know what I want and why I want it, step three is, what are all of the things that can help me move it forward? We call that the map or the massive action plan that you’re going to jot down on paper to get ready to go make it happen.
If I know what I want, why do I want it, and what are the things that can help me get there? Steps four through seven are simple because step four is to prioritize it. Step five is to timestamp it, Step six is to help yourself get leverage. Leverage simply means who can help me? Is it Dave? Is it Trevor? Is it an accountability partner? Is it ChatGPT? Is it a travel agent? Oftentimes, we think we’re the only people that can make things happen when we’ve got access to all of these other fabulous people. That’s step six.
I think you know what step seven is because that is, execution along with course correction. That’s when you go out there and you take what I call, intelligent and inspired action. Intelligent means – smart, and inspired means because you get to, not because you have to.
If you think of Real estate, does it matter what Asset class you’re in? Does it matter if you’re new to Real estate? Or maybe you’re an intermediate or you’re an expert at it? When you think of where you are today and where you want to go, you have to know what you want, why you want it, and all the things that can help you get there. You have to prioritize what’s the first, second, and third things you’re going to do. You got to timestamp it, you got to leverage it, you got to execute on it, and then measure, “Am I on track or do I need to course correct?” That is the fourth S, which is what we call strategy.
I got to say, Trevor, we’re definitely on the same sheet of music. I wrote a book on that. It’s called The Holistic Wealth Strategy. It’s completely in line with that, it resonates. One of the things that I love about having a strategy and then how you articulated that, I also see it as a framework because everyone has a little bit different circumstances, maybe where they are on their journey, things that they’re working through.
When you have enough flexibility within that framework and within that strategy, everyone can make progress there. That’s excellent for people to have something to lean on, have an approach or a blueprint if you will, so that they can grow.
That’s awesome. To recap, the state, the story, the standard, and the strategy are things that the listener can think about where you’re at, and where you want to go, then start using some of these tools and mindset shifts to start climbing the ladder of success.
Awesome, Trevor. So many pearls of wisdom in here. I appreciate all these insights. If you could give just one piece of advice to listeners about how they could accelerate their wealth trajectory, what would it be?
I love that question. I’m going to overdeliver because I’ve got two things that I’ll stack on that. The first one is, to check in with your hunger. How hungry are you for success? Do you want to settle for the appetizer, do you want to settle for what’s on the value menu, or are you ready to have the full meal deal? For the committed, there’s always a way.
You have to check in with your hunger and you have to refuel it to remind yourself about the Five Freedoms and what’s available to anyone who’s defiantly committed to moving towards it. Again, that’s number one, check in with your hunger. Number two is passion. I often find that with my clients and the high performers that I coach, whether they’re Fortune 500 executives, Real estate investors, doctors, attorneys, or Olympic athletes. I’ve had the pleasure to coach some amazing people.
They check in with their passion and allow themselves to become childlike, not childish. But childlike in going after it, pursuing it, and knowing that they can gamify. To play a game, go after it, and enjoy the journey. Where there’s passion, there’s purpose. Where there’s passion and purpose, there is profit. Money becomes the byproduct of you checking in with your hunger, unleashing that passion, going out there, and using the Four S’s to climb the ladder of success.
Be very careful not to label something you’ve done or seen someone else do as a failure. As entrepreneurs, there is no failure—only feedback.
Awesome. Those are words to live by for sure, Trevor. I can’t thank you enough. I’m grateful for you. Grateful for this time together and for sharing all these insights with the listeners. I know they’re going to get a lot out of this. I know I’m going to listen to this a couple more times and take action because it’s all about taking action. It’s great that we’re able to talk about mindset.
We can talk tactics and strategies about Real estate all day long and Syndications, enough people are doing that all the time. If you don’t get the mindset right, whatever business you’re in, whatever investing Asset classes you’re doing, it’s all you’ve got to have the mindset right to start.
Absolutely. That’s why I give you a huge shout-out, Dave. You doing this work, writing books, putting this out there, and continuing your growth trajectory. We have a lot of people that run in a very similar circle. A lot of people who have been on your show are amazing human beings. Don’t just be interested, be committed to listening to more of the show, and unleashing your power. It’s available to anyone who’s defiantly committed to it. Keep up the great work.
Awesome, thanks. If people would like to learn more about your coaching, connect with you, or follow you, what’s the best place?
Thank you. The easiest way to do that is to head over to my website. It’s simply trevormcgregor.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn and other various social media. I would say the website and LinkedIn are probably the easiest and fastest ways to connect. If anyone is interested in doing a Discovery Call or finding out a little bit more about how my coaching structure works, I’m happy to support that as well.
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on, Trevor.
Thank you, Dave. Again, keep up the great work.
You bet.
Important Links
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Books Mentioned
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Business and Professional Networks Mentioned
Further Resources
Your 10-Step Actionable Checklist From This Episode
✅ Clearly define your “big fat compelling reason” (your WHY) for pursuing your goals. List at least seven deep layers of your WHY to ensure it’s compelling enough to drive you through challenges.
✅ Regularly revisit your WHY and remind yourself of your purpose and goals to maintain motivation and drive.
✅ Embrace a mindset of continuous learning and growth. Read books, attend seminars, and listen to influential thinkers in your field.
✅ Identify limiting beliefs and stories you tell yourself. Replace them with empowering narratives that support your goals and aspirations.
✅ Use strong, affirmative language that reflects determination and confidence.
✅ Track and reflect on your daily thoughts. Aim to shift towards more positive and constructive thinking.
✅ Express appreciation towards people around you daily. Acknowledge their contributions and show gratitude for their efforts.
✅ Regularly assess your state, story, and standards on a scale of 1 to 10. Use this self-assessment to identify areas for improvement.
✅ List all actions that can help you achieve your goals. Prioritize these actions, set deadlines, and identify resources or people who can assist you.
✅ Actively engage with thought leaders and financial industry experts like Trevor McGregor, leveraging platforms such as his website — TrevorMcgregor.com and LinkedIn, to further expand your network and opportunities.
About Trevor Mcgregor
With over 25 years in coaching and business strategy, Trevor McGregor has empowered global entrepreneurs, business owners, and investors to achieve fulfillment and success. He was formerly a top Master Platinum Coach for Tony Robbins and conducted 25,000+ coaching calls with executives, athletes, and professionals worldwide.