the podcast recap episode with aj & rory vaden

Ep 521: How To Be Rich | Matt Fornito Episode Recap

Listen to the episode below

If you live in the United States, statistically speaking, you are already richer than most human beings on the planet.

If you make more than $50,000 a year, then you make more than most people do worldwide.

But if you want to learn how to be successful, which is a part of what being rich means, then this episode is for you!

Join us as we consider what it looks like to apply extreme focus and intentionality to reaching our goals, how this translates to success, and the real-life results that come from identifying and prioritizing a limited list of priorities each day.

Don’t miss this bite-sized episode filled with life-changing practical advice! 

Thanks for listening in! 

Key takeaways from this episode

  • Where to access our free introductory course: First Step to Famous.  
  • Reasons that “rich” is a relative term. 
  • Distinguishing between being rich and being successful. 
  • The story of Warren Buffet’s pilot who asked him how to be rich.  
  • A Brand Builder’s Group saying: diluted focus gets diluted results. 
  • What it means to have extreme focus and intentionality.  
  • How this applies to every day of your life. 
  • AJ’s experience with prioritizing and achieving results. 
  • Narrowing down the areas where you can truly be exceptional.  

Tweetable Moments

“Diluted focus gets diluted results.” — @aj_vaden [0:04:59] 

“You have success in the areas in which you spend the most time.” — @aj_vaden [0:05:56] 

“When I have priorities and I put all of my energy into [them], I have better days.” — @aj_vaden [0:07:44] 

About Matt Fornito

Matt Fornito is founder and CAIO at the AI Advisory Group. Formerly a CDO, Head of AI, and Data Scientist, Matt has spent two decades as a catalyst for transformative change, combining his fervor for the confluence of psychology, technology, and AI to empower and educate. At the heart of his work is a relentless drive to unlock the AI potential within organizations and individuals alike.

As a consultant for over a decade, he not only built two firms’ AI practices from scratch – one winning NVIDIA’s Partner of the Year Award (and acted as NVIDIA Partner Chair), he has served some of the leading Fortune 500 companies helping them accelerate their AI journey through strategic roadmaps leading to tangible, business outcomes. He has been entrusted with billions in spend and produced $100s of million in revenue.

Three decades on stage with the past decade as a keynote speaker, Matt combines theory, practicality, and storytelling to engage tens of thousands of people and inspire about the future potential of AI. His evangelism and thought leadership have been seen at CIO/CDO Roundtables, Evanta events, various podcasts, and news outlets including CIO and CDO Magazine.

Links Mentioned

Matt Fornito on LinkedIn 

Matt Fornito on X 

The AI Advisory Group 

AJ Vaden on LinkedIn

AJ Vaden on Twitter

Rory Vaden

Rory Vaden on LinkedIn

Rory Vaden on Twitter

Take the Stairs

Brand Builders Group

Brand Builders Group Free Call

Brand Builders Group Resources

The Influential Personal Brand Podcast on Stitcher

The Influential Personal Brand Podcast on Apple

AJV (00:02): Do you wanna know how to be rich? Well, I’m gonna tell you a story that I recently heard, and here’s how the story goes. Regardless to what amount of truth is to this story I think it’s a great example of something that we all need to hear and learn if you truly want to be rich. Now, I say that with bunny ear quotations because rich is a really relative term. If you live in the United States, then statistically speaking, you are already richer than most human beings on planet Earth. And if you make more than $50,000 a year, then you make more than most people worldwide. So there’s a relative term there. But if you wanna learn how to be successful, right, which I think is a part of what rich means, then this story should mean something to you. And this is a story about Warren Buffet and a conversation that he had with his pilot. AJV (00:55): And his pilot asked him, he said, Warren, will you teach me how to be rich? Will you teach me how to be successful like you and I think anyone in that your surroundings would’ve said, yes, teach me too. How did you do what you have done? And he said, okay, here’s what you wanna do. Get out a piece of paper and write down the 50 things that you want to accomplish. So he got out a piece of paper and he wrote down, here are 50 things that I wanna do, I wanna accomplish, right? He said, okay, now cut that down to 25. So narrow it down to what are the 25 most important things on that list. So he did. And then Warren said, okay, now cut that list down to 10. And the pilot did. He said, okay, well, I’m gonna cross this out and cross this out and cross this out. AJV (01:46): So he went from 50 to 25 to 10, and then Warren came back and he goes, all right, now I want you to cut that list of 10 in half. Again, I want you to narrow it down to what are the five things that are most important on that list. And the pilot at this point says, whoa, we started with 50. Now you’re all the way down to five. Like, that’s hard. These are all important, these are all significant. And then Warren said, but you asked, how do you be successful? How do you be rich? And if you’ve got more than five things that you’re chasing after that you’re doing, that you’re spending your time on, then it’s too many, right? And I, I, this is something we say at Brand Builders Group a lot, that diluted focus gets diluted results. And I think this is a great story that exemplifies what we’re talking about. AJV (02:40): And it’s like, you only have so much attention, right? We only have so many minutes in an hour, so many hours in a day, so many days in a year, and so many years in our life. And if we make this, you know, I hear people talk about this all the time. Here’s my bucket list item of things, right? And it’s like, then we’re kind of just like checking off whatever comes our way without a lot of intentionality. But if we want to really be quote unquote rich or really be successful, then what we need to do is have extreme focus, extreme intentionality into what are the five things, or are the three things. I’m not saying it has to be five, but what are the few things that you could go after with all of your focus, all of your might, all of your intention, all of your attention, all of your passion, all of your time, because that’s where you have success. AJV (03:31): You have success in the areas in which you spend the most time. You have the most expertise in the areas in which you spend the most time. You have the best relationships in the areas where you spend the most time, right? And that’s how you become rich, , rich in relationships, rich in time, rich in money, is that you’re not chasing every shiny object out there that you have narrowed it down to in my life, for my life, in my business, for my business, these are the select few most important priorities that are, that are above all else that get my time. First, my attention. First my energy, first my passion, first, my money first because I have declared them. So, and that can’t be spread out equally with 50 things, not even 25 things, likely not even 10 things, but maybe with five, more likely with three. AJV (04:28): And if you think about the way you’re going about your day this doesn’t not apply to that, right? I look at my calendar right now somewhat sheepishly. I’m going, I need to take my own advice here because on any given day I might be doing 10, 12, 15 different types of tasks. And let me tell you how I end those days. I end them completely exhausted, completely overwhelmed, not enough energy to go and give my kids and my husband the love time energy that they deserve. Why? Because I’ve expended too much in too many different areas, doing too many different things. Not a an ounce to breathe and ounce to go to the bathroom without being on a phone call, eating lunch while I’m multitasking lunch sometimes, like, what is lunch? Right? That’s my chew, that’s my choosing. No one did that to me. AJV (05:16): I did that to myself and I did it because I had a lack of priority. But when I have priorities and I enter and I put all of my energy into those, I have better days, I have more energy left over I, I am more fulfilled and I get more done because I was able to go deeper in the areas that got the best of me. And that is true for life too, right? And it’s like, there’s just so many things that we can do, so many relationships that we can invest in so many tasks that we can complete so many, so many opportunities that we can say yes to. There is a limit. AJV (05:56): And, and I say there’s a limit if you wanna do them well, right? So how do you be rich? You narrow down where you’re investing your time, energy, focus, learning, expertise and you pick a few that you can be exceptional at, and that’s how you become rich.

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