Who do you think you are? The answer to this question will have more impact on your success than anything else in your life. That's not an exaggeration. That's the truth.

The answer to the question, who do you think you are, is what your personal identity is. And that identity, how you envision yourself, that's more important than anything else in your mind and in your journey toward achieving your goals. Want to learn more about that? Want to unlock the secret to obtaining everything you want? You got to join us for this edition of The Daily Dose of Dave on the InsideBS channel.

Hey, now, I'm Dave Lorenzo. I am the godfather of growth. This is your Daily Dose of Dave.

We're here every day at 6 a.m., you and I, for this conversation. And today we're talking about your success identity. And that is the answer to the question, who do you think you are? There is a specific process in place, and I have reverse engineered that process in my business.

And this is exactly the way I coach the CEOs that I coach right now. Step one in this process is to identify who you need to be to achieve the outcome that you desire. In my case, $100 million business owner.

I want to be the owner of a business that does $100 million in annual revenue per year, and I want to be that business owner in three years. So the year after, the year after next. We're in 2025 as I record this.

So by January 1st, 2028, I will be the owner of a $100 million annual revenue business. So step one is to understand that that's what my identity is. So for you, you need to understand what your identity is, and it's your future identity.

It's not who you are today. And I'll share this story with you. And I've shared it with people who are part of my coaching groups.

I've shared it with people who I'm doing consulting work for. Working for Marriott, I'm the assistant general manager of a hotel in New York, and I'm getting paid $25,000. It seems like a very small amount of money.

I mean, even at that time in the late 90s, it was a very small amount of money. So I'm getting paid $25,000 as a general manager of a hotel, and I'm recruited to join a Marriott franchisee. And the Marriott franchisee recruits me to be the general manager of a hotel that's going to undergo a renovation, and I'm going to have to completely change the clientele who are a part of that hotel.

I'm going to have to completely change the staff out, and then they're going to re-flag the hotel as a Marriott property. So I'm going to have to pretty much lead the startup of that hotel from scratch, take it from being a lesser brand. I'm not going to name what the brand is, but suffice it to say it's a lesser brand, to a Marriott brand.

So they pay me $50,000. So I leave my job at Marriott on a Friday. I start my job at the new company on a Monday, and in those three days, I went from being a $25,000 a year general manager to being a $50,000 a year general manager.

In three days, nothing changed except my value of myself during that three-day period. Fast forward to the time when I rejoined Marriott, three and a half years later, I've acquired enormous skills, knowledge, and experience through my work with that Marriott franchisee. I opened several new hotels.

I opened five different new hotels. I helped change the flag on a dozen different hotels. I had done feasibility studies.

I had traveled all over the United States in doing this. So I was far more valuable to Marriott. I joined Marriott to lead the startup of the Execustay brand, and I go from making $55,000, because I had gotten 10% increases over that three-year period, to making $110,000.

Again, I went from being an employee of the franchisee on a Friday to being an employee back at Marriott to lead the startup of the Execustay brand on the following Monday, and now I'm making double what I was making. In that three-day period, nothing had changed other than my perception of myself. My identity in my mind.

Now, think about this. I lead that startup for three years, and over that course of that three years, I gain skills. I gain knowledge.

I gain experience. I take that startup from zero to $50 million in annual revenue, and I'm recruited by the Gallup organization to start their consulting business in Manhattan, and I end up taking that business to enormous heights, from startup to well beyond over $250 million in value delivered to our clients, and they decide I have unlimited potential based on the amount of business I bring in. Over the next six years, I bring in so much business that during that time period, my compensation increases to be over $1.2 million a year, so I went from being a $110,000 a year employee to being a $1.2 million a year employee.

Same person physically, but my identity had changed, so now here I am in this startup with Nicola, with Nikki G. Am I the $25,000 person that was working for Marriott as an assistant general manager? Am I the $50,000 person that got that job initially with the Marriott franchisee as a general manager? Am I the $100,000 person that went from that franchisee back to Marriott? Am I the $1.2 million person that led that massive business for Gallup? The answer to all of those things is I am whatever I believe myself to be, and we all at some point lose sight of this, and some of us will wander through the woods for years forgetting that we have the map that shows us the path or the GPS that shows us the path to get out of the woods. We have that map. It's in our pocket, or more aptly, it's in our mind.

It's in our head. The GPS that will lead you through the wilderness when you're confused, when you're agitated, when you're frustrated, that GPS is right in your mind. You need to set your identity at whatever you want it to be in the future.

I have set my identity right now as the identity of being a $100 million business owner, so my behavior is going to be governed based upon what a $100 million business owner would do. Step one is to figure out who you need to be in order to achieve the outcomes you want. Step two is to understand that agitation, frustration, and confusion that you're going to feel while you are trying to reconcile where you are today with where you need to go, who you are with who you should be.

The sooner you become clear in your mind that you're the CEO of the business that you want to build, the faster you get through the agitation, frustration, and confusion you're feeling right now. For me, the answer to every question must be, what would a $100 million business owner do? What would a $100 million business owner do? Now, I will give you the fact that a $100 million business owner would hire somebody to handle the day-to-day stuff, but the $100 million business owner, as he's building the business, would document the steps, the systems, and the processes so that when he hires someone, they're set up for success, right? That's what I need to do. Step number two is to accept the agitation, frustration, and confusion as you're growing into the role that you see yourself in in the future.

Step three, make the process the reward. This is true of everything you're doing as the future you. For me, the process of becoming the $100 million business owner is the reward.

Part of what I'm looking to accomplish in 2025 is to grow our business by creating a pipeline full of leads. That means increasing the visibility of our company. That means deepening our credibility as the number one CEO coaching program for businesses that make a minimum of $5 million a year in annual revenue.

The business owners want to build a business that acts like an investment. How can we be the number one program? Well, we have to seize the mantle of thought leadership. What does that mean? That means creating more content.

What does that mean? That means doing things like this. That means doing a show every day for you. Every time I sit down behind the mic, every time I record a show like this, I'm behaving like that $100 million business owner should behave.

The work is the reward. I am the $100 million business owner while I'm recording this for you. Making the work the reward is what fires up the dopamine in my brain.

You need to do the same thing. If you wanted to lose weight and you wanted to get fit, every time you ate healthy, you were living in alignment with the future you, a healthy fit person. Every time you go to the gym, you're living in alignment with the future you.

The work is the reward. Step number four is recognizing and rewarding execution. After I finish recording this podcast, I am going to sit down and have a delicious breakfast.

That's going to be my reward for doing the work that the $100 million business owner should be doing. I'm recognizing and rewarding execution of the task. I'm recognizing and rewarding the work itself.

I'm not waiting until we bank the $100 million to reward myself. I'm giving myself little rewards for achieving the milestones, little rewards for doing the things that lead to the outcome. Then step number five is what would the person who has already achieved the goals you're looking to achieve do? For me, would that person waste their time sitting in traffic for an hour and a half to get to a meeting? Or would they have someone drive them and work for that hour and a half, make phone calls for that hour and a half, respond to emails in the back of the car for that hour and a half, read things that would help them prepare for that meeting during that hour and a half car ride? Instead of driving with windshield time and having to focus and concentrate on the driving, you can focus and concentrate on doing work because your work is more valuable.

The $100 million business owner would have somebody drive them. That's one of the things that I'm going to focus on doing as we move forward in 2025. Would that $100 million business owner sleep on a plane? Would they watch a movie on a plane? Or would they be productive while they're on the plane ride? Behave in congruence with your future identity and accept that's the person that you are right now.

Your action item is to write out all of the qualities that you can envision in yourself as the person you want to be in the future. Write out all of those qualities. What are the qualities that that future person has? The person who's already accomplished the goal that you have for yourself, write out all of those qualities and then picture yourself embodying all of those qualities.

The sooner you do this, the faster you will achieve your goals. I'm Dave Lorenzo. This is your Daily Dose of Dave on the Inside BS channel.

We'll see you back here at 6 a.m. tomorrow.