Dan Martell

There's a reason your team stops talking when you enter the room.

The corporate world is drowning in toxic leadership.

Bosses who mistake fear for respect. 
Managers who confuse control with competence. 
“Leaders“ who destroy morale and call it accountability.

The world doesn't need more bosses. It needs more actual leaders.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: your team is watching to see which one you are.

They watch everything. How you handle stress. How you treat mistakes. Whether you practice what you preach.

They don't follow your words. They follow your example.

If you demand excellence but deliver mediocrity...
If you preach accountability but dodge responsibility...
If you talk “growth mindset“ but resist feedback...

You're not leading. You're performing.

Real leaders demonstrate:
• Consistency between words and actions
• Vulnerability when they don't have answers
• Ownership of failures, sharing of victories

Fake leaders demonstrate:
• “Do as I say, not as I do“ mentality
• Blame-shifting when things go wrong
• Expecting standards they don't meet

Your team doesn't need you to be perfect.
They need you to be real.

Ask yourself: Would I follow someone who acts the way I act?

If the answer is no, your team probably feels the same way.

Leadership isn't a position.
It's a standard you hold yourself to first.

Be the leader you wish you had.

-DM

Want to know if someone's ready to lead?

Don't look at their performance. Look at their team's.

The best predictor of leadership isn't how good someone is at their job. It's whether they make everyone around them better at theirs.

Do people ask them for help? Do they share knowledge freely? Do they celebrate other people's wins? Do they take blame when things go wrong?

That's leadership. Everything else is management.

Most companies promote their best individual contributors and wonder why they fail as managers.

It's because you promoted them for being great at the job, not for making others great at the job.

Stop promoting for past performance. Start promoting for future impact.

-DM

Everything you want is just 30 minutes away.

The fitness. The creativity. The connection. The progress.

It's all right there. Waiting.

Not for someday. For today.

You've been telling yourself you'll start when things slow down.
When you have more time.
When it feels right.

But the truth is... it'll never feel right. And you already have the time.

30 minutes. That's it.

That's the distance between who you are and who you're becoming.

The better version of you isn't months away. It's one decision away.

Make the call. Start the workout. Ask the girl. Have the conversation.

Just give it 30 minutes.

You're so much closer than you think.

-DM

If you've ever thought "I could build that if I just had a team"...

You now have a team.

It just doesn't require payroll, management, or meetings.

This is the unlock. The excuse of "I don't have the resources" has evaporated.

You have access to tools that give you capabilities that used to require hiring 10 people.

The gap between idea and execution has never been smaller.

What are you waiting for?

-DM

On my flight the other day, I heard an elderly woman who was boarding ask the staff if they accepted cash on the flight.

Anyone who travels knows they only accept cards...

But something pulled at me to say something.

So as she passed by, I quietly asked if she’d allow me to cover anything she needed.

It was 12 (noon) and a two hour flight... I figured she was probably hungry.

She couldn’t believe my offer.

She asked me why I would do that?

I just told her that she looked like someone who would do the same if our roles were reversed. 😉

She smiled and said, “100% I would.”

After a few seconds, she graciously accepted and I let the stewardess know that I’d cover whatever she ordered.

Towards the end of the flight, a stewardess handed me this note. ❤️

Now, I’m not sharing this to brag...

I’m sharing this because I believe every once in a while we get asked - inside our hearts - to serve.

Many of us rationalize that voice... dismiss it... and move on.

But what if you didn’t?

What if you leaned in and did what you could to help?

It’s been years that I’ve been listening with my heart wide open.

I don’t question it anymore... and I give without expectations.

I just assume there's a higher reason.

Who knew what she was dealing with in her life. What she’d experienced.

Maybe it was her first time flying?

All I knew is that if it was my grandmother, I would hope someone would take care of her.

It just felt right.

So next time you hear that voice...

Or something pulls on your heart...

Just know that you are being guided.

And if you’re in an incredible & fortunate place to help... that you should do something.

No matter how small.

You never know the ripple effect it might have in this crazy world we live in.

Insanely grateful,

- DM.

Every legend looked “average” first.

455 uploads. 300 rejections. 9,000 missed shots.

Keep swinging until consistency makes you dangerous.

Your job isn’t to be perfect, it’s to keep going.

The work compounds. The world catches up.

So, why not you?

-DM

Never underestimate a person who practices self-education in their free time.

I've built multiple companies alongside both Ivy League graduates and high school dropouts.

The correlation between success and formal education?
Almost zero.

The correlation between success and self-education?
Nearly perfect.

The standouts were rarely the ones with perfect resumes.
They were often the ones who never stopped evolving.
The ones whos refuse to stay the same.

The world rewards credentials, but it runs on competence.

The degree on your wall might tell where you've been.
But what you do at 9pm on a Sunday tells the world where you're going.

-DM

Trained employees solve problems. Untrained employees become problems.

Trained employees make your life easier. Untrained employees make everything harder.

Trained employees attract other good people. Untrained employees drive good people away.

The companies struggling to hire right now are the same ones that never invested in the people they had.

The companies with waiting lists of applicants are the ones known for developing talent.

Your reputation as a leader isn't built on who you kept. It's built on who you developed.

Stop hoarding people like assets and start developing them like investments.

Some will leave. Most will stay. All will remember how you treated them.

-DM

People don't quit jobs where they're learning and growing.

They quit jobs where they've stopped.

You can have the best salary, the best perks, the best title.

If someone isn't developing, they're leaving. Just a matter of time.

Your team will either grow with you or outgrow you.

Train them so well they could thrive anywhere. Treat them so well they don't want to go anywhere.

It's the only retention strategy that actually works.

-DM

Your idea isn't the problem.
Your timing isn't the problem.
Your market isn't the problem.

The only real failure is letting the hard days convince you to give up on the great days ahead.

Stay in the game.

-DM

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There are two paths in business.

Path 1: Get really good at what you do. Work harder. Optimize your time. Build expertise. Trade that expertise for income.

Ceiling: $500K-$1M. Maybe $2M if you're exceptional.

Path 2: Build leverage. Create systems that scale without you. Build assets that compound. Multiply through others.

Ceiling: Doesn't exist.

Most people spend their entire career on Path 1. Then wonder why they're stuck.

It's not because they're not good enough. It's because they're playing the wrong game.

Code, content, capital, collaboration - these are the only things that scale infinitely.

Everything else caps out.

That's how empires are built now.
Not by trading time for money.
But by trading leverage for freedom.

Most still play the old game better.

But those who win play a different game entirely.

-DM

If you quit now, you lose more than the goal.

You lose the proof that you can do hard things.

You lose the story of the comeback.

You lose the version of yourself that makes it through.

The tired goes away. The failures become lessons. The stress becomes strength.

But if you quit? That stays forever.

Future you is counting on current you to not give up when it gets hard.

Don't rob yourself of that person.

Rooting for you 👊
-DM

I've bought 35+ companies in last 5 years.

The pattern is obvious once you see it: Some businesses print money. Others barely survive.

The difference comes down to one metric: how much each customer is worth over time.

Whether you're building to sell or building to keep, here's how to make your customers worth more:


Step #1: Know what your customers are actually worth

Most people think in "monthly revenue." Winners think in "lifetime value."

Formula: LTV = Average Order Value × Purchase Frequency × Customer Lifespan

Bad business:
• Customer pays $100
• Buys once
• LTV = $100

Great business:
• Customer pays $100
• Buys monthly for 3 years
• LTV = $3,600

36x difference. Same price point. Same customer. Different business model.


Step #2: Calculate your LTV:CAC ratio

This tells you if you're building something profitable or just treading water.

LTV:CAC = Lifetime Value ÷ Customer Acquisition Cost

The breakdown:
• Less than 3:1 → Burning money
• 3:1 to 5:1 → Healthy
• 5:1+ → Printing money

If you spend $100 to get a customer worth $300, you're barely profitable.
If you spend $100 to get a customer worth $800, you're building an asset.


Step #3: Keep customers longer

If customers stay 2x longer, LTV doubles. Simple math.

• Nail onboarding: They bought based on a promise. Deliver that promise in the first 7 days.

• Increase stickiness: Integrate into their workflow. Example: Dropbox becomes sticky because your files live there.

• Monitor usage proactively: If someone hasn't logged in for 14 days, reach out before they cancel.

Real example: Client of mine tracked their customers on LinkedIn. When someone changed jobs, they reached out to both the old team AND the new company. Retained both.


Step #4: Get customers buying more often

• Usage-based pricing: Basic tier = 5 visits/week. Premium = 10 visits/week.

• Add complementary products: What do customers buy before/after using you? Sell that.

• Shift to subscriptions: $5,000 one-time project = $5K LTV. $500/month for 3 years = $18K LTV.


Step #5: Increase what they spend

Implementation fees: Charge for onboarding/setup (standard in B2B)

Upsells at purchase: "Customers who bought X also need Y"

Premium tiers: Basic/Pro/Enterprise. Same product, different support levels.


Step #6: Pick ONE lever and execute for 90 days

You just learned three ways to increase LTV:
1. Keep customers longer
2. Get them buying more often
3. Increase spend per purchase

Don't try all three at once. Pick the one with highest return for least effort. Execute. Measure. Move to the next.

That's how you build a business worth buying. Or better yet, a business worth keeping.

-DM

P.S. Want to know what your business is actually worth? I built a valuation calculator that shows you exactly how investors would value your company based on these metrics. Comment "VALUE" and I'll send you the calculator plus the breakdown of what makes businesses sell for premiums. My gift to you 👊

What would you add to the list?

Most companies operate on a simple principle: Only pay more when forced to.

Someone threatens to leave? Counteroffer.

Someone actually leaves? Hire their replacement for more.

New hire demands market rate? Fine.

But proactively paying people what they're worth? Never crosses their mind.

Then they wonder why everyone's always halfway out the door.

Here's the thing: Your team knows exactly what they're worth. They're on LinkedIn. They see the job posts. They talk to recruiters.

The only question is whether you're going to acknowledge it before or after they have another offer.

One builds loyalty. The other builds resentment.

-DM

Most people are building skills for jobs that won't exist in 5 years.

They're ignoring the AI wave. Hoping it passes. Thinking their role is "too complex" to automate.

They're wrong.

I spend my time analyzing cutting-edge AI companies and market trends. Watching which roles disappear and which ones become more valuable.

Here's what I'm seeing:

The jobs that survive aren't the ones doing the work. They're the ones directing it, protecting it, or building the tools that do it.

AI can execute. It can't decide what's worth executing.

AI can create. It can't determine taste or vision.

AI can automate. It can't build the systems that make automation secure and scalable.

The 6 jobs in this post are the ones that will not only survive - they'll thrive.

All six figures. All learnable. All positioned at the intersection of human judgment and AI capability.

You don't need med school. You don't need rocket science. You need to understand where the world is going and position yourself accordingly.

Most people won't do this. They'll wait until it's too late. Until their skills are obsolete and they're competing for scraps.

You're not most people.

The future isn't coming. It's here. These are the roles that will pay you extremely well to help build it.

Swipe through. Pick one. Start learning.

-DM

2 Million on YouTube.

My kids will grow up watching these videos.

That thought has been sitting with me since we crossed 1M.

One day, they'll click through this archive and see their dad teaching millions of people how to build businesses, lead teams, and bet on themselves.

And here's what I want them to see:

Not that I built something big. That I built something that mattered.

That every video was in service of something bigger than views.
That every lesson came from real scars, not theory.
That I chose impact over income, movement over metrics.

Because this isn't about me leaving a legacy for my kids.

It's about us creating a legacy for every kid who needs to see that ordinary people can build extraordinary things.

Every entrepreneur in their garage who thinks they're alone.
Every founder betting their last dollar on themselves.
Every person who's been told to "get a real job" but knows they're meant for more.

2 million people who are now living proof.

And we’re not done.

I’m not interested in just change lives - we'll change what's considered possible.

That's the world I want the next generation to inherit.

That's the movement I want you to lead with me.

Thank you for helping build something worth leaving behind.

Onwards.

-DM

Everyone wants to be rich. Most people just lie about it.

They say things like "money isn't everything" while secretly resenting everyone who has it.

Here's the thing: The guilt you feel about wanting wealth didn't come from you. It was installed.

By broke people who needed you to stay broke with them.
By a culture that romanticizes struggle
By a system that calls ambition greed.

But you know what's actually greedy?

Having the ability to solve problems and choosing not to because you're afraid of what people will think.

You're a creator. You solve problems. That's who you are.

And every time you hold back because making money feels wrong, you're robbing people of the solution they need.

So stop asking if you're allowed to want wealth. Start asking who you can help.

Wake up tomorrow and decide to serve a thousand people.
Then ten thousand.
Then a million.

Pour everything you have into making their lives better.

Do that. Show up. Build. Serve.

Karma will take care of the rest.

-DM

The person you're jealous of isn't your competition.

They're just further along a path you're both on. They started earlier, failed faster and kept going longer.

You vs. you is the only scoreboard that counts.

Win there. Everything else handles itself.

-DM

Every entrepreneur has an invisible number.

The revenue level where everything starts falling apart. 
The team size where your leadership breaks down.
The pressure point where you self-sabotage.

Most people call it a plateau. It's actually a ceiling built by your own psychology.

I've seen brilliant founders with perfect strategies crash at the same level repeatedly.

Not because of market conditions or competition.

Because they hit their internal limit for what they believe they can handle.

$20K months feel comfortable. $100K months feel terrifying. 
2 employees feel manageable. 6 feel overwhelming.

The problem isn't your business skills.

Your mindset simply can't support the weight of your ambitions.

And that’s exactly what my "5 Daily Non-Negotiables" were designed to fix.

Not only your tactics. But your capacity to handle MORE.

Most entrepreneurs will keep hitting the same ceiling forever.

A few will realize the ceiling is internal and do something about it.

If you're ready to expand your capacity instead of just your strategy...

I've got a handful of spots open to work with entrepreneurs who are looking to shatter their invisible number.

If that’s you, message me "COACH" and I’ll send you all the details.

-DM

I'm looking for a handful of entrepreneurs who know they’re meant for more.

If you’re feeling frustrated, it’s because you’ve been operating at 100% capacity…

Laptop open at midnight, burning your eyes. Skipping the Saturday hang out to finish client work.

…giving it everything you’ve got, but only seeing 60% results.

From coaching thousands of founders, let me tell you...

It’s not because you're lazy. And it's not because you don't know what to do.

It's about who you need to become to do it.

The entrepreneurs winning at the highest levels aren't just better at business.

They've mastered something most never touch: their internal operating system.

While others optimize funnels, they optimize their psychology.

While others chase strategies, they upgrade their identity.

While others react to circumstances, they move toward their vision.

This is why I created the "5 Daily Non-Negotiables". A system that’s helped all my private clients rebuild from the inside out.

When you become the 10.0 version of yourself, everything else becomes easier.

If you're ready to start getting results that match your effort...

Message me "COACH" and I'll reach out to see if it's a fit.

-DM

I love watching founders win.

My buddy Vive (founder at Revio) just hit $1M ARR as our first Martell Ventures portfolio company.

He did it in 10 months 🤯

This is what I built this for. Not the returns. Watching great founders accelerate.

And I want to do it 10 more times this year.

AI founders building for small business - if you've got customers and momentum:

Drop your AI startup in the comments with:

• Your company name
• Your one-line pitch
• The problem you're solving
• What sets you apart from every other AI company
• Your current traction

I'll personally review every comment with my team.

The ones with real potential? We'll reach out to discuss partnership opportunities with Martell Ventures

Plus, I'll be connecting the most promising companies directly with investors and strategic partners in my network.

Your next funding round or partnership could start right here in these comments.

Tag an AI founder who deserves visibility.
Share with builders who need to be seen.

The floor is yours.

-DM

P.S. I'm pinning this post for maximum exposure to my investor network - this is your chance to get in front of serious players in the AI space.

I just got back from a 3-week trip to Europe.

Didn't check my emails. Didn't hop on team calls. Fully disconnected.

Martell Media? Had its best month ever.

Most entrepreneurs think this is impossible.

They believe the business NEEDS them to succeed.

But after building and running a few 8-figure companies, I learned it's often the opposite.

You see, should actually be performing better WITHOUT you.

That's when you know you've built something real.

How? Systems that multiply your genius instead of depending on it.

That's exactly what Taki Moore and I are teaching at Media Empire Australia this December.

It's a 2-day private event where we open up our entire playbook:

- The exact systems that let Martell Media thrive without me
- How to clone your decision-making so your team can operate like you (if not better)
- The media and sales engine that put revenue growth on autopilot
- Why most businesses plateau at $3M (and how you can break through)

I only have spots for 15 people. Last one sold out in a day.

Message me "EMPIRE" for the details.

-DM

Nobody ever quit a job because the snacks weren't good enough.

A recent PayFit survey discovered 46% of employees would turn down a 15% raise to keep their workplace flexibility.

Read that again.

Nearly half of all professionals would choose freedom over more money.

Yet companies keep spending millions on office perks while ignoring what truly matters:

1. Respect
2. Flexibility
3. Empathetic Leadership
4. Meaning and Purpose
5. Trust and Transparency

The truth is... most "culture building" activities are just expensive distractions from the real issues.

So next time you approve that office upgrade budget, ask yourself: would your best people trade it all for more agency and less bureaucracy?

Because your competition is betting they will. And the data says they're right.

-DM

At some point, you stop chasing impressive and start chasing meaningful.

The shift is quiet. Nobody announces it.

You just wake up one day and realize the things you were working toward don't matter as much as the things you already have.

The people who know you.
The work that fills you.
The peace you feel when nothing's happening.

That's the wealth most people miss because they're too busy looking ahead.

-DM

If it was easy, everybody would be rich.

-DM

Smartest advice I've ever got:

/1 Be easy to find, hard to reach.

Be visible enough that opportunities find you.

Be scarce enough that people value your time.

Best time management advice I've ever received.


/2 Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.

Some days, answering one email is a win when your inbox is overflowing.

The point? Doing it poorly is infinitely better than not doing it at all.

This isn’t about lowering standards, it's about making progress.


/3 NO is just a YES playing hard to get.

If you ask, they might say YES.

They might also say NO, but if you don't ask it's always a NO.

So ask.


/4 Success is rarely a brain game.

People who are further in life aren’t smarter than you. They’re just doing more than you.

There's no such thing as "ready".

You learn to swim by drowning a little every day.

Jump in. The water's fine.


/5 Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.

Knowledge without action is like a Ferrari without gas. Looks cool, goes nowhere.

Learn → Apply → Fail → Learn more → Apply better → Succeed → Repeat.

That’s it.


/6 Stay curious.

There’s always room for a new idea.

Be humble. Be teachable. Ask dumb questions. Challenge assumptions.

Be that annoying kid who keeps asking "why."

The moment you think you know it all is the moment you're done growing.

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Now tell me, what’s the smartest advice you’ve ever received?

Share it below. Let’s learn from each other.

-DM