# Move One: Know Yourself, Name Your Future Truth, Build Your Flywheel **Speaker:** Patrick Bet-David and Tom Ellsworth (Valuetainment), with public share-backs from attendees at the microphone **When:** 2026-09-01 · 1:29 PM–3:06 PM ET (10:29 AM Las Vegas) **Theme:** Know yourself & decide **Sources:** 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl, txeO1BHoPsYyc9nPRqf9, IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ **Notes page:** https://vault.chels.ai/sessions/d1-move-one-identity/ > **Decide who you want to be and which seat fits you before you chase income, then speak a future truth, deliver on it, and wire every part of your life into a flywheel that feeds itself.** This was Move One of the conference workbook, drawn from Patrick Bet-David's book Your Next Five Moves: master the art of knowing yourself. Tom Ellsworth, Bet-David's long-time number two, walked through role fit, the price of a dream, three levels of achievement, the 80/20 of effort, pain threshold, and why a great number two can out-earn a founder. Bet-David then taught eight ways to reach your potential, the idea of a future truth, his family's New Year's Eve vision-board ritual, and the business flywheel, before sending the room into a 15-minute personal identity audit and groups of four. Attendees who came to the microphone described their breakthroughs; their private table conversations are excluded here. **Best for:** Founders deciding whether they are truly built to be the number one; Executives and operators who may create more value and wealth as a number two or three; Salespeople and agency builders who want a repeatable engine instead of hustle; Parents who want to teach ambition and dreaming to their kids; Anyone who keeps reacting to noise instead of initiating; Solopreneurs and creators deciding what kind of life to build ## Claude skills from this session - `business-flywheel-map` — Draw your business flywheel the way Patrick Bet-David taught it from Disney's 1957 diagram. Core product in the centre, every business line, show, podcast, membership, club, referral relationship and team around it, arrows for what feeds what, a score for every link, then a second small flywheel for your health team and a third for your family, and one link to strengthen this quarter. Use whenever someone asks how their businesses or side projects connect, wants more referrals or a repeatable engine instead of hustle, is deciding whether to start a podcast, club, newsletter or second product, says growth feels like grinding, asks about synergy, ecosystems, cross-selling or compounding, or wants to know why a competitor's customers never leave. Trigger even if they never say "flywheel". https://vault.chels.ai/skills/business-flywheel-map/SKILL.md - `future-truth-delivery-plan` — Write a "future truth" the way Patrick Bet-David teaches it, a "one day we will..." statement about where your business or family is going that is true only to you and sounds like a lie to everyone else, then build the delivery plan that earns the right to be believed. Produces the statement, the audience list (team, family, customers), a promise ledger of every "one day" you have already said and whether you kept it, the next 90-day proof point, and an optional New Year's Eve family vision-board ritual. Use whenever someone wants to set a vision, write a mission, BHAG or long-range goal, cast a vision to their team or family, complains that their team does not believe in the direction, wants a vision board, or has been making "one day" promises without delivering. Trigger even if they never say "future truth" or "visionary". https://vault.chels.ai/skills/future-truth-delivery-plan/SKILL.md - `know-yourself-identity-audit` — Run the "Move One" self-knowledge audit Patrick Bet-David and Tom Ellsworth taught from Your Next Five Moves. Score yourself against the seven seats (entrepreneur, intrapreneur, support team, solopreneur, influencer, sales, CEO/founder), decide whether you are built to be the number one or a high-value number two, run the driver test and the dream-price questions, then write the personal identity audit (how the world sees you vs how you see yourself, what brings out your best and worst, who annoys you and why, how you handle pressure) and name a one-sentence breakthrough. Use whenever someone is questioning their career direction, weighing whether to start a company or stay an operator, keeps failing as the number one, feels like a fraud or burnt out, asks "who am I really" or "what kind of life do I want", wants a self-assessment, personal audit, or values exercise, or is deciding what role to take next. Trigger even if they never say "identity audit" or "seven seats". https://vault.chels.ai/skills/know-yourself-identity-audit/SKILL.md - `reach-your-potential-eight-ways` — Audit yourself against Patrick Bet-David's eight ways to reach your potential and turn the measurable ones into running systems. Covers all eight (things must matter, initiate instead of react, systems that let you think less, conserve energy, move on faster, define hard work in numbers, compete up, make pain your fuel) and builds three tools: the move-on-faster ladder for setbacks (a month to two weeks to a week to two days to a day to two hours to ten minutes), the define-hard-work-in-counts audit (calls, appointments, messages, emails, visits per role vs the last 30 business days), and a weekly reacting-to-initiating review. Use whenever someone is dwelling on a loss or bad deal, keeps getting derailed by fire drills, argues with a salesperson or team member about who works hardest, wants to raise a team's activity, feels stuck or unmotivated, compares themselves to people who seem fearless, or asks how to reach their potential or reach the next level. Trigger even if they never say eight ways. https://vault.chels.ai/skills/reach-your-potential-eight-ways/SKILL.md ## Skills to build - **Knowing which role actually suits you** — Tom Ellsworth framed self-knowledge as knowing the seat you are comfortable driving from: entrepreneur, intrapreneur (a CFO, COO, CMO or CIO who builds inside a growing company), support team, solopreneur, influencer, sales, or CEO/founder. The role is where you are comfortable, what you aspire to, what you hone, what you teach, and how you want to be led. It may not be where you start. _How to practise:_ Once a quarter, look back at the last 90 days and write which tasks gave you energy and which drained you. Map them against the seven roles. Tom said he only realised later that his lens had been COO all along; the pattern shows up over time. You know it is working when you stop applying for, or building toward, seats that fit your ego rather than your wiring. - **Initiating instead of reacting** — Bet-David's second and third ways to reach potential: reacting creates noise and stress, while initiating eliminates future reactions. Systems let you think less because the next step is already decided. _How to practise:_ Each week, list the three things that forced you to react. For each, write the initiating action or system that would have prevented it. Build one system a week: first do this, then this, then this. Valuetainment cuts 432 clips a week on a system, not on inspiration. It is working when your week has fewer fire drills and more scheduled moves. - **Moving on faster after a setback** — Bet-David's fifth way: shorten the time you dwell on a loss. Move a month down to two weeks, two weeks to a week, a week to two days, two days to a day, a day to two hours, two hours to ten minutes. The sooner you move on and learn, the better. _How to practise:_ Keep a simple log of setbacks with two dates: when it happened and when you were fully back to work on the next thing. Each time, aim for one rung shorter than last time. Ask what you learned before you close it. It is working when the gap shrinks month over month. - **Defining hard work in numbers** — Bet-David's sixth way: quantify hard work so nobody can hide behind 'I was in the office twelve hours.' Count calls, appointments, messages, emails, and visits for yourself and your peers. _How to practise:_ Write the number that constitutes a hard day for each role on your team, and for you. Review the last 30 business days of actual activity against that number before anyone asks for more responsibility. Bet-David told a salesperson who wanted to skip 250 dials a day that his worst day was under 30. It is working when conversations about effort are about counts, not feelings. - **Speaking a future truth and then delivering it** — A future truth is a statement about what will happen that is only true to you and a lie to everyone else until it arrives. Bet-David said visionaries live a lie half the time; the difference between a visionary and a talker is that the vision becomes reality. _How to practise:_ Write your future truth in one sentence and say it out loud to your team and family, using 'one day we will...' language. Then pick the next small proof point and hit it. Bet-David said in 2011, with no YouTube channel, that presidents and Kobe Bryant would one day come to his events. Each delivered promise, like the Chanel purse after the third child, earns the right to be believed next time. It is working when people stop rolling their eyes at your one-day statements. - **Flywheel thinking** — A flywheel is a map of how each part of your business and life feeds the others, modeled on Disney's 1957 diagram where films fed merchandise, comic strips, Disneyland, music and TV, and each fed the films back. Bet-David said the flywheel is what takes a regular person to a $100 million company or a salesperson from $180,000 a year to $980,000. _How to practise:_ Draw your flywheel tonight and redraw it every quarter. Put your core product in the middle and every channel, relationship group, show, club, and team around it with arrows for what feeds what. Add a health flywheel and a family flywheel too. It is working when a new deal or opportunity clearly came from a link you drew on purpose. - **Honest self-audit, then processing it with peers** — The personal identity audit asks how the world sees you, how you see yourself, what the difference is, what brings out your best and worst, who annoys you and why, what triggers you, and how you handle pressure. Writing it privately and then talking it through with a small group is what produced the breakthroughs shared on stage. _How to practise:_ Redo the audit twice a year, alone, in writing, with the same questions. Then share one useful finding with a trusted group of three or four, not the private details. One attendee said the audit had evolved across four years of attending and his company doubled in the process. It is working when the gap between your public self and private self is shrinking. - **Building a peer network that understands the load** — Tom Ellsworth said the Thanksgiving table can be the loneliest place for an entrepreneur because relatives see the truck and not the payroll worry. The fix is a handful of peers you can text on the worst week, not to commiserate, but to get encouragement to step out of it. _How to practise:_ Leave every event or mastermind with at least five new friendships saved as text threads. Message one of them each week with a real win or a real problem. It is working when the worst week of the year has someone to call within an hour. ## What matters - **Who you want to be comes before what you want to earn:** Bet-David opened with the hardest question people face: who do you want to be and how big a life do you want to build? Do you want the pressure of the number one, the number two seat, or a quiet life nobody notices? Income follows the answer, not the other way round. _(Evidence: 13:29:48-13:30:16 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Crisis is where you meet yourself:** Tom Ellsworth asked who had discovered what they were capable of during a crisis, and most hands went up. Those are the points of discovery. Treat the last hard stretch as data about your capacity rather than a bad memory. _(Evidence: 13:30:42 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Intrapreneurs build inside someone else's vision, and that is a real role:** At General Electric a new CFO follows a 60-year-old playbook. At an early-stage company the CFO is creating the system. Tom described an intrapreneur CFO who knew who he was in his skin and became a massive help. If you love building but not carrying the whole vision, that seat exists. _(Evidence: 13:32:38-13:33:43 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Solopreneur is a legitimate identity, not a failure to scale:** Tom estimated roughly a third of the room earned under half a million dollars and were probably solopreneurs: the realtor building a niche brokerage, the parent whose side hustle became a full-time store. He framed it as loving the freedom it gives you with your family, not as a stepping stone you must leave. _(Evidence: 13:35:15 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Decide early how you will create wealth: equity, salary, or ownership:** Tom pressed the question of where your wealth will come from. Early-stage equity as a founder, a piece of equity as a joining executive, or building your own agency. He pointed to insurance leaders in the room who held equity in the parent company while building their own offices. Pick the path on purpose. _(Evidence: 13:39:06-13:39:48 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Test whether you are a driver before you plan the desert island:** Tom's Sprint CEO mentor said: before you promise yourself a house in Maui forever, take a three-week vacation over Christmas and see how you feel by week three. If you are stir crazy, you are a driver, and your dream needs to be demanding rather than restful. _(Evidence: 13:40:07-13:41:11 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Every dream has a price, and willingness decays without fire:** Tom laid out the sequence from Bet-David's masterminds: know where you want to go, know what it takes, and be really willing to do it. The fire in your heart is what keeps willingness from sliding into unwillingness when things get hard, when 'they' block you or steal your deal. _(Evidence: 13:41:12-13:42:46 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Great entrepreneurs never blame 'they':** Tom said the best operators name the specific competitor and the specific date rather than a vague 'they'. It turns a grievance into a target: this competitor is not going to interfere with us in this market, and we will hit this number. _(Evidence: 13:41:46-13:42:08 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **The least talented person often achieves the most:** In the Larry, Cindy and John slide, Larry has the most talent and John a third of it, yet John is the overachiever because he knows what he wants, knows the cost, is willing, and never gives up. Cindy achieves exactly what is expected and no more. Larry underachieves and people quietly hurt for him at the reunion. _(Evidence: 13:42:49-13:46:06 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Talk to your kids about the talented people who lost, not just the winners:** Bet-David cited Charlie Munger's children saying their father constantly talked about friends with the biggest potential who made bad decisions and lost everything, not about the successful ones. It builds both an underdog mentality and a respect for what waiting and bad choices cost. _(Evidence: 13:46:17-13:47:28 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **80/20 lives inside every level, and the top 1% is the 20% of the 20%:** Tom applied Pareto to achievers: within overachievers, achievers and underachievers there are doers and 'actors', which he also called posers, people performing effort instead of putting it out. Getting into the top sliver comes down to being a lifelong learner, asking for feedback, seeking mentors, and choosing the five people around you. _(Evidence: 13:47:39-13:49:14 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **The pain threshold is the job, not a sign something is wrong:** Tom said the founder carries the company, the vision, the selling, and their life savings, so the pressure is supposed to feel this way. Accept the threshold, find people who encourage you, and stop waiting for it to disappear. _(Evidence: 13:51:26-13:52:07 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **The best number two has usually been a number one:** Tom founded and sold a digital publishing company as CEO and called it an absolute grind. He made more money and felt more joy as one of seven at JamDAT and later building Bet-David's 'engine room'. Because he understood what a CEO carries, he could be the most valuable number two. _(Evidence: 13:52:10-13:53:52 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Your position number is irrelevant; the value you sit next to is not:** Bet-David asked whether you would rather be number one of an $800,000-a-year business or number three at SpaceX. He claimed that when SpaceX went public, about 30 mid-level managers were paid $200 million to $400 million each. If you keep failing at number one, you may be built for two or three, or for number one of a smaller business. _(Evidence: 13:53:57-13:54:58 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **The boring stuff creates wealth:** Bet-David warned that people who run small businesses often tune out when systems come up because they want motivation. He said the boring day-to-day, not the exciting moments, got Valuetainment to 29 million followers. Master the boring and the wealth follows. _(Evidence: 13:55:39-13:56:25 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Nobody is untouchable, so stop adding fear on top of fear:** Reading Norman Vincent Peale, Bet-David said most people are just as scared as you despite appearing confident. Mike Tyson lost to Buster Douglas; Michael Jordan had the ball stolen by Nick Anderson. You will never be untouchable either, so compete up, do your best, and make pain your fuel. _(Evidence: 13:57:53-13:59:53 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Your own team will doubt the future truth until it pays:** Bet-David's own people told him to stop making videos at 32 views and focus on being CEO. When he later paused content for three months at 158,000 subscribers, the same people called it irresponsible. Expect the doubt phase and keep going. _(Evidence: 14:00:44-14:01:32 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Delivered promises are how a family learns to trust your one-day talk:** He promised his wife a designer purse after three kids and delivered it at the hospital, then a bigger ring at ten years, which she traded for a trip to Monaco. Each kept promise is why she believes the next one. Casting vision to your family only works if the earlier visions came true. _(Evidence: 14:02:00-14:04:52 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **A vision board is a family tradition, not a solo craft project:** Bet-David's family buys 50 magazines, gets boards and glue, and builds vision boards together from 8 p.m. on New Year's Eve. The intent is twofold: everyone in the family dreams, and the kids carry the tradition to their own children. It also keeps the family off the roads on one of the most dangerous nights of the year. _(Evidence: 14:05:09-14:06:50 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **The 2009 board took 14 hours and is still paying off:** Bet-David spent 14 hours on three boards in 2009: what inspires you, what excites you (quotes), and his goals. One line was wanting to be in the room with other lions making big decisions. He now takes calls from heads of state, and traces it back to putting real time into the board and believing in himself first. _(Evidence: 14:06:55-14:09:38 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Apple beat Android on flywheel, not on phone:** Bet-David asked how many former Android users switched because friends complained about green text bubbles. That is a flywheel effect: each Apple product makes the others more valuable. People undervalue how much a flywheel does for a company or a career. _(Evidence: 14:13:02-14:13:42 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Flywheels are everywhere once you look: clubs, lunches, health, kids' sport:** The networking club that produced $3 million policies, the cigar lounge full of owners, quarterly lunches with accountants who refer clients, a son's soccer coaching team, and a personal health team of cardiologist, concierge doctor and chiropractor were all named as flywheels. The mindset is that every area of life can be wired to feed the others. _(Evidence: 14:14:07-14:15:41 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Fewer than one percent had finished the audit; treat the event as built for you:** Bet-David said less than one percent of the room had completed the identity audit before the session. His own habit at events was to tell himself the whole thing was put together for one person, him, and to take more value than anyone casually waiting for the speakers. That posture is what makes the exercise work. _(Evidence: 14:16:37-14:18:03 / 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl)_ - **Who annoys you is a mirror:** A company president said at the microphone that the question 'who annoys you?' turned out to have nothing to do with the other person. It reflected what he thought about himself. Use irritation as a pointer to your own unfinished business. _(Evidence: 14:51:20-14:51:41 / IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ)_ - **Pressure tolerance can be about control, not toughness:** A manufacturer who owns a $30 million company said he handles business pressure well because he owns the company and the relationships, but handles home pressure badly because he lacks that control. The audit surfaced the real variable so he could ask why control matters so much to him. _(Evidence: 14:51:47-14:52:29 / IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ)_ - **Live in your public skin when you are alone:** The founder of a large indoor pickleball franchise said the world sees him as confident and driven, and that is real, but privately he beats himself up daily. His breakthrough was to stay in the public version, who focuses on the big picture, instead of flipping back and forth. _(Evidence: 14:58:18-14:59:03 / IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ)_ - **Asking for help is a business development strategy:** A second-year attendee with a business just over $5 million said the audit pushed him to stop doing everything himself. Asking other owners for advice improved his sleep and brought in new business; one contact said they had waited five years for him to come and talk. _(Evidence: 14:50:06-14:50:49 / IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ)_ - **You are most qualified to teach the people you used to be:** A consultant said he had drifted toward working with CEOs and founders and produced less, because his best work was with underdogs whose backs were against the wall. Bet-David agreed the shift from lifting regular people to sharpening killers is a very different mindset, and worth choosing deliberately. _(Evidence: 14:54:23-14:56:34 / IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ)_ ## Frameworks, lists & numbers - **The seven seats (know-yourself role menu)** — Entrepreneur (founder building from zero); intrapreneur (a CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO or COO who creates inside a company that is still being built, not following a 60-year-old playbook); support team (marketing manager or operator at an early-stage company); solopreneur (realtor building a niche brokerage, parent with a store that became full-time); influencer; sales; CEO/founder/inventor. The right seat is where you are comfortable, what you aspire to, hone, teach, and how you want to be led. - **Three-week vacation test** — Attributed by Tom Ellsworth to a former Sprint CEO: before promising yourself a permanent retirement dream, take a three-week vacation over Christmas. If you are stir crazy by the end of week three, you are a driver and should design a demanding dream, not a restful one. - **The dream questions** — Do I know where I want to go (the dream objective)? Do I know what it takes to get there? Am I really willing to do it? Plus: how demanding is the dream, does it energize me, what is my capacity, and how hot is the fire in my heart that stops willingness from becoming unwillingness? - **Larry, Cindy and John: three levels of achievement** — Larry is the underachiever with the most talent, who fails to reach even basic expectations. Cindy is the achiever, less talented than Larry, who does exactly what is expected and has capacity to spare. John has roughly a third of Larry's talent and half of Cindy's, and is the overachiever because he never gives up. Bet-David called it one of the best slides to show your kids. - **80/20 inside every level, and the top 1%** — Within overachievers, achievers and underachievers alike, 80/20 applies: doers versus 'actors' or posers who perform effort. The top 1% is the 20% of the 20%. Getting there: lifelong learning, asking for feedback, seeking mentors, and choosing the five people around you, whose success and position shape your self-image and direction. - **Eight ways to reach your potential** — 1. Things must matter to you. 2. Note the difference between initiating and reacting; reacting creates noise, initiating eliminates future reactions. 3. Find systems that help you think less and make you more predictable. 4. Conserve your energy for what matters. 5. Move on faster. 6. Define hard work for you and your peers in numbers. 7. Compete up and don't be afraid. 8. Make pain your fuel. (The transcript's spoken numbering skips and repeats; this is the reconstructed list.) - **Move-on-faster ladder** — If you dwell a month, get to two weeks. Two weeks to a week. A week to two days. Two days to a day. A day to two hours. Two hours to ten minutes. - **432 clips a week** — Valuetainment's studio cuts 432 clips every week on a documented system. Bet-David used it as proof that the boring, systematised work, not the exciting moments, built an audience of about 29 million followers. - **Number one of $800K vs number three of SpaceX** — Bet-David's comparison: would you rather be number one of an $800,000-a-year business, or number three at SpaceX and receive a $200 million check at exit? He claimed about 30 mid-level SpaceX managers were paid $200 million to $400 million each when the company went public. The one-two-three position is irrelevant; maximise value wherever you are. - **Future truth** — A stated future that is true only to you and a lie to everyone else. Speak it to employees, sales team, family and kids in 'one day' language. Delivery is more important than speaking it: only someone whose cast vision became reality can call themselves a visionary. Kennedy's moon promise was the example. - **New Year's Eve vision board ritual** — Every December 31 the Bet-David family buys about 50 magazines, plus boards, cards and glue from a craft store, and from 8 p.m. everyone including guests makes a board for the year ahead. Bet-David's original 2009 set took 14 hours and had three boards: what inspires you, what excites you (quotes), and goals. Each child's boards from every year stay on their bedroom wall. Two intentions: the family dreams, and the kids pass the tradition on. - **Disney's 1957 flywheel** — Theatrical films in the centre. Around it: merchandise (bottom left), comic strips (bottom right), Disneyland (bottom), music (top right), TV (top left). Every business feeds the others. Bet-David showed the 1967 version and today's version to make the point that a flywheel compounds for decades, and said Valuetainment's own ventures exist to build the same thing. - **Everyday flywheel examples** — A networking club that produced $3 million policies; a private cigar lounge full of business owners; quarterly lunches with accountants who refer insurance clients; a son's soccer development team (mental, technique, futsal, striking); a personal health team of cardiologist, concierge doctor and chiropractor. The flywheel is what moves a salesperson from $180,000 a year to $980,000. - **Personal identity audit** — Workbook pages 92 to 96, 15 minutes alone, then groups of four. Questions heard on stage and at the microphone: How does the world see you? How do you see yourself? What is the difference? What conditions produce the best version of you? What brings out the worst in you? Who annoys you and why? What triggers you about other people? What type of people do you like most and why? How do you handle pressure? What is your biggest accomplishment? What fear stops you? Bet-David said fewer than 1% had finished it before the session and predicted fewer than 20% would take it seriously. - **Five new friendships rule** — Do not leave the event without at least five new peers saved as text threads, whether they live five miles or five states away, so the worst week of the year has someone who understands and can encourage you out of it. ## Exercises & frameworks to run - **Know-yourself role map** _(25 minutes)_ _[speaker idea, scoring steps editorial]_ 1. Write one sentence answering: who do I want to be, and how big a life do I want to build? 2. List the seven seats Tom Ellsworth named: entrepreneur, intrapreneur (executive who builds inside a growing company), support team, solopreneur, influencer, sales, CEO/founder/inventor. 3. For each seat, score yourself 1-5 on: comfortable here, aspire to it, would hone it, could teach it, want to be led this way. 4. Circle the seat with the highest total. Write down what pressure, teaching and leadership style come with it. 5. Note where you are today versus that seat. The role that suits you may not be where you start. - **Finish with:** A chosen role with scores, trade-offs, and the gap between now and there. - **Career-arc pattern review (Tom Ellsworth's lens test)** _(20 minutes)_ _[editorial (speaker's own story turned into steps)]_ 1. List every job or venture you have had, in order. 2. Beside each, write what you loved and what you did not know about yourself at the time. 3. Look for the recurring lens. Tom went sales, then operations, then marketing at a startup, then COO, and only later saw that his lens had been COO all along. 4. Write the one-line pattern and check it against the seat you circled in the role map. - **Finish with:** A one-line statement of your recurring professional lens. - **Wealth-path decision** _(15 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Answer in writing: will my wealth come from founding with equity, joining early with a piece of equity, building my own agency or practice, or salary and savings? 2. For your chosen path, write who controls the equity or ownership and what event turns it into cash. 3. Write what you must be true in the next several years for that event to happen. - **Finish with:** A named wealth path with the liquidity event and the conditions for it. - **Three-week vacation test** _(Three weeks, once)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Before committing to an exit dream like a house on Maui forever, schedule a genuine three-week break, ideally over Christmas. 2. Do not work. Notice how you feel at the end of week one, two, and three. 3. If you are stir crazy by week three, you are a driver. Redesign the dream so it demands more of you rather than less. - **Finish with:** A clear answer to whether you are built to drive or to retire, and a dream adjusted to match. - **Dream demand and price check** _(15 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Close your eyes and picture the dream. Does it energize you to drive on the path you are on today? 2. Write how demanding the dream is: does it force you to dig deeper, keep reading, keep learning what tomorrow is? 3. Answer the three mastermind questions in writing: Do I know where I want to go? Do I know what it takes to get there? Am I really willing to do it? 4. Rate the fire in your heart today from 1 to 10 and write what would keep it burning when 'they' block you. - **Finish with:** A yes or no on willingness, plus a fire rating and what sustains it. - **Larry, Cindy and John: a conversation with your kids** _(30 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Draw three boxes: Larry the underachiever (the most talented), Cindy the achiever (does what is expected), John the overachiever (a third of Larry's talent, never quits). 2. Ask each other: who was the Larry of your school and how are they doing today? Who succeeded that nobody expected, and how? 3. Explain that John wins because he knows what he wants, knows the cost, is willing, and keeps the fire going. 4. Add Charlie Munger's habit: talk about the people with the most potential who made bad decisions and lost it, not only the winners. 5. Ask your child which box they are choosing and what one habit would move them toward John. - **Finish with:** A shared family vocabulary for talent versus drive, and one habit your child picked. - **Top 1% self-check** _(20 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Within your level, decide honestly whether you are a doer or an actor, someone who performs effort without putting it out. 2. Answer the four questions Tom posed: Am I a lifelong learner? Do I ask for feedback? Do I seek mentors? Do I strive every day? 3. Write the names of the five people you spend the most time with and their position in life. Tom said they dictate your self-image and your direction. 4. Choose one person to add and one habit to change this quarter. - **Finish with:** A one-page audit of learning, feedback, mentors and your five, with two changes. - **Five new friendships before you leave** _(Across the event, then 5 minutes a week)_ _[speaker]_ 1. At any conference or mastermind, set a target of five new peers saved in your phone before you leave. 2. Exchange numbers, not just social handles, and send a first text while still in the room. 3. Agree the purpose out loud: someone to text on the worst week, not to commiserate, but to get encouragement to step out of it. 4. Message one of the five each week for the next month so the thread stays alive. - **Finish with:** Five active text threads with peers who understand the entrepreneur's load. - **Number one or number two decision** _(20 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Write your honest answer to Bet-David's question: would you rather be number one of an $800,000-a-year business or number three at a company that could pay you a $200 million check at exit? 2. List the last three times you tried to be the number one. Did it work? If not, what did you blame? 3. Ask Tom Ellsworth's question: is there a vision I would love to build an engine room for, so the CEO never has to look over their shoulder? 4. Decide for the next 12 months: number one of what size, or number two or three to whom. Write it down. - **Finish with:** A 12-month seat decision with the size of business or the leader named. - **Move-on-faster ladder** _(5 minutes per setback)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Write your current recovery time after a setback: a month, two weeks, a week, two days, a day, two hours. 2. Set the next rung down as your target for the next setback (month to two weeks, two weeks to a week, week to two days, day to two hours, two hours to ten minutes). 3. When something goes wrong, log the date it happened and the date you were fully back on offense. 4. Before closing the entry, write the one thing you learned. Move to the next rung once you have hit the current one twice. - **Finish with:** A setback log showing recovery time shrinking rung by rung. - **Define hard work in numbers** _(45 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. For your role and each role you lead, write what a hard day is in counts: calls, appointments, messages, emails, visits, or the equivalent for your craft. 2. Pull the actual numbers for the last 30 business days. Find the worst day and the average. 3. Compare the actual to the definition. Bet-David found a salesperson claiming he was ready for bigger deals had never made 250 calls in a day and averaged under 30. 4. Publish the definition to the team so nobody can substitute hours in the office for output. - **Finish with:** A written, shared definition of hard work per role and a 30-day gap analysis. - **The untouchable list** _(10 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Write the name of one person you have met who is truly untouchable. Bet-David gave the room ten seconds and nobody could. 2. Write the names of three people you compare yourself to and assume are never scared. 3. Beside each, write one public setback they had (Tyson and Buster Douglas, Jordan and Nick Anderson). 4. Write the one thing you have been avoiding because of fear, and do the first step this week. Compete up, do your best, and do not be afraid. - **Finish with:** Proof on paper that nobody is untouchable, and one fear-driven avoidance turned into an action. - **Future truth statement and delivery plan** _(30 minutes)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Write your future truth as 'One day we will...' in one or two sentences. It should sound like a lie to everyone but you. 2. List the three groups who need to hear it: your team, your family, your customers. Say it to each of them this month, in Bet-David's words 'talk dirty' about the future. 3. Pick the next proof point, the first small piece of that future you can deliver within 90 days. 4. Deliver it, then repeat the future truth. Each kept promise is what earns you the word visionary rather than talker. - **Finish with:** A written future truth, an audience list, and one 90-day proof point. - **New Year's Eve family vision board** _(One evening, every New Year's Eve)_ _[speaker]_ 1. In the last week of December, buy about 50 magazines at a bookstore and boards, glue and cards from a craft store. 2. On December 31 from about 8 p.m., gather the family and anyone who wants to join. Everyone makes their own board for the coming year. 3. Use Bet-David's three sections from his 2009 boards: what inspires you (images of the life you want), what excites you (quotes that drive you), and your goals. 4. Put real time in. He spent 14 hours on his first set. 5. Hang each person's board in their room and keep the previous years' boards up so everyone can see the progression. 6. Have each person explain their board to the others. - **Finish with:** One vision board per family member, displayed for the year, and a tradition your kids can pass on. - **Draw your flywheel** _(One minute to start in the room; 45 minutes as homework)_ _[speaker]_ 1. On one page, put your core business or product in the centre, as Disney put theatrical films in 1957. 2. Around it, write every business, podcast, show, product line, membership, club, referral relationship, and team you have. 3. Draw arrows showing what feeds what. Disney had merchandise, comic strips, Disneyland, music and TV all feeding films and each other. 4. Add the everyday links Bet-David named: a networking club, a cigar lounge, quarterly lunches with accountants who refer clients. 5. Circle any link that depends on one person or produces nothing. Pick one link to strengthen this quarter. 6. Draw a second small flywheel for your health team and a third for your family. - **Finish with:** A one-page business flywheel plus health and family flywheels, with one link to strengthen. - **Personal identity audit** _(15 minutes writing plus 15 minutes in a group of four)_ _[speaker]_ 1. Set a 15-minute timer and write, alone, without stopping to polish. 2. Answer the opening three: How does the world see you? How do you see yourself? What is the difference? 3. Answer the driver questions: What conditions produce the best version of you? What tends to bring out the worst in you? 4. Answer the mirror questions: Who annoys you, and why? What triggers you about other people? What type of people do you like most, and why? 5. Answer the pressure questions: How do you handle pressure in business versus at home? Where do you need control and why? What is your biggest accomplishment? What fear stops you? 6. Be as honest as you can; Bet-David said the breakthrough depends on it. 7. Then meet your group of four and share what the exercise did for you, not every private answer. 8. Finish whatever you did not complete that same night. - **Finish with:** A completed written audit and one breakthrough you can name in a sentence. - **Pressure and control split** _(15 minutes)_ _[editorial (steps built from a public share-back at the microphone)]_ 1. Draw two columns: business and personal. 2. In each, write how you actually handle pressure: speed of decisions, ability to move on, stress level. 3. Where the columns differ, ask what you control in one and not the other. A $30 million manufacturer found he coped at work because he owned the company and relationships, and struggled at home where he did not. 4. Write why control matters so much to you and one place at home where you will practise letting it go. - **Finish with:** A two-column pressure map and one control habit to release at home. - **Public self versus private self** _(10 minutes)_ _[editorial (steps built from a public share-back at the microphone)]_ 1. Write the three words the world uses for you. Then write the three words you use for yourself when alone. 2. Mark which list you want to live in. A franchise founder realised his public self ignored small problems and focused on the future, and chose to stay in that skin privately. 3. Write one daily trigger that flips you back to the private self, and what you will say to yourself when it happens. - **Finish with:** A named target self and one script for the moment you flip. ## What to do — and how often - [ ] **Complete the full personal identity audit and write your one-sentence breakthrough** — Once now, then repeat every year _[annually; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Redo the identity audit with the same questions and compare it with last time.** — Every six months _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Draw the first version of your business flywheel, plus a health and a family flywheel.** — Once this week, then redraw every quarter _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Redraw the flywheel and pick one link to strengthen.** — Every quarter _[quarterly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Make a vision board with your family: 50 magazines, boards, glue, from 8 p.m., everyone builds their own.** — Every New Year's Eve ('every Christmas, New Year's Eve at our house') _[annually; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **If it is your first vision board, record a one-to-two-minute video of it and send it to Patrick Bet-David on Minnect for a response.** — Once, after your first board _[once; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Buy and read Poor Charlie's Almanack, especially the interviews with Charlie Munger's children.** — Once ('put this on your to-do list when you leave') _[once; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Walk your kids through the Larry, Cindy and John slide and the stories of talented people who lost it.** — Once this month, then whenever a teachable moment comes up _[once; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **At every conference or mastermind you attend, leave with five new peers saved as text threads and message one within a day** — Every event you attend; weekly check-in with one of them _[weekly; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **Write the numbers that define hard work for your role and each role you lead, and audit the last 30 business days against them.** — Once this week, then review the counts monthly _[monthly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Take your referral partners (accountants, attorneys, or the equivalent for your business) to lunch.** — Every quarter ('accountants that you take them out to lunch every quarter') _[quarterly; speaker-stated]_ - [ ] **List last week's reactions and build one system that removes the need to react next time.** — Every Friday _[weekly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Log each setback with the date you were back on offense and aim one rung shorter than last time.** — Each setback, reviewed at month end _[monthly; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Write your future truth and say it out loud to your team and your family.** — Once this month, then repeat it at every team kickoff and family milestone _[once; editorial recommendation]_ - [ ] **Schedule a real three-week break over the holidays to find out whether you are a driver.** — Once, over Christmas ('take a three week vacation over Christmas') _[once; speaker-stated]_ ## Questions to ask yourself - Who do I want to be, and how big a life do I want to build: the one who carries all the pressure, the number two, or a quiet life nobody notices? - Which of the seven seats am I actually comfortable driving from, and is it the one I am currently chasing? - How will I create wealth: founding with equity, joining with equity, building my own practice, or salary? - If I took three weeks off over Christmas, how would I feel by week three? - Do I know where I want to go, do I know what it takes, and am I really willing to do it? - How hot is the fire in my heart right now, and what keeps it burning when someone blocks me? - Am I Larry, Cindy or John, and which one are my kids becoming? - Am I a doer or an actor? Am I a lifelong learner who asks for feedback and seeks mentors? - Who are the five people around me, and where are they taking my self-image? - Would I rather be number one of a small business or number three of something enormous? - How long do I dwell on a setback, and what is the next rung down? - What number defines a hard day for me, and what were my real numbers over the last 30 days? - Who have I ever met who was truly untouchable? - What is my future truth, and who have I actually said it to? - What have I promised my family 'one day' and have I delivered any of it yet? - Do I have a flywheel? What feeds what in my business, my health and my family? - How does the world see me, how do I see myself, and what is the difference? - Who annoys me, and what does that say about me? - Where do I handle pressure well and where do I not, and is the difference really about control? ## Quotes > “One of the most difficult questions for people to answer is, who do you want to be in life and what kind of a life you want to build? Because people don't know what that means.” — Patrick Bet-David (13:30:01 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Opening Move One: identity before income. > “But knowing the role that suits you means you're comfortable driving from where you are and it may not be where you start.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:36:11 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Closing the walk through the seven roles, from entrepreneur to solopreneur to CEO. > “Before you say, I'm gonna make a bunch of money and go buy a big place on Maui and live there the rest of my life, take a three week vacation over Christmas and tell me how you feel at the end of week three.” — Tom Ellsworth, quoting a former Sprint CEO (13:40:19 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > The test for whether you are a driver. > “And when he says he knows what he wants to do, he knows what it costs to get there, and he's willing to do it, and the fire in his heart and knowing his capacity keeps the fire burning so his willingness to do what it takes never becomes unwillingness.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:44:38 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Why John, the least talented of the three, is the overachiever. > “And we talked about how the same Thanksgiving table was sometime in the most lonely place.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:49:22 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > The loneliness of carrying a business that relatives cannot see. > “Don't leave here unless you have at least five new friendships on text message.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:50:26 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > The assignment to build a peer network at the event. > “So accept the pain threshold, find people that encourage you, but understand that this is just the way it was supposed to be.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:51:57 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Pressure as the founder's job rather than a malfunction. > “I could be the most valuable number two because I understand the number one.” — Tom Ellsworth (13:53:21 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > After founding and selling his own company, he chose to build Bet-David's engine room. > “Maximize value no matter where you are.” — Patrick Bet-David (13:54:58 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > The rule for number twos, threes and fours in a company. > “Those who master the boring stuff eventually create wealth.” — Patrick Bet-David (13:55:56 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > On systems, and why small-business owners should not tune out when they come up. > “Actually quantify how many calls, how many appointments, how many messages, how many emails, how many visits, quantify what hard work is so people can't say, I've been in the office for twelve hours.” — Patrick Bet-David (13:57:07 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > The sixth way to reach your potential: define hard work. > “The sooner you're able to move on and learn, the better for you.” — Patrick Bet-David (13:56:58 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Ending the move-on-faster ladder from a month down to ten minutes. > “It's only truth to who? To you. It's a lie to who? Everyone else.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:01:41 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Defining a future truth. > “By the way, the way you gave her respect is by your future truth becoming a reality cuz the next time you talk, she'll believe you.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:02:00 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Why delivered promises are what let a spouse trust the next big vision. > “You can't call yourself a visionary if you've never casted a vision that never became reality.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:04:45 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Visionary versus talker; Kennedy and the moon as the example. > “The fly wheel is what takes a regular person to build a $100 million company.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:13:47 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > On why people undervalue the flywheel (transcript spelling 'fly wheel' preserved). > “Remember, our entire goal for you is to have a breakthrough leaving this place that nobody back home recognizes when you go home.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:17:06 · 98rfK0qDEUMnJNCy8UYl) > > Setting up the personal identity audit. > “Our goal is to get a breakthrough. By the way, less than 20% of you will take this seriously.” — Patrick Bet-David (14:33:42 · txeO1BHoPsYyc9nPRqf9) > > Sending the room into groups of four. > “And I realized that it had nothing to do with the person who annoyed me and it was a reflection of what I thought about me.” — Attendee at the microphone (president of a publishing and training group) (14:51:30 · IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ) > > His breakthrough on the 'who annoys you' question. > “And what I realized with the third question, when I look at the public guy, I want to live in that skin when I'm by myself.” — Attendee at the microphone (founder of an indoor pickleball franchise) (14:58:54 · IiJs3UhruK8QRv1gAGbJ) > > The gap between how the world sees him and how he treats himself alone. ## Watch-outs - Chasing the number one seat out of ego when you would create more value and wealth as a number two or three, then wondering why you keep failing. - Treating solopreneur or support roles as failures rather than legitimate identities you may be built for. - Planning a retirement dream you would find unbearable by week three because you are a driver. - Blaming a vague 'they' for stolen deals and blocks instead of naming the specific competitor and date. - Being an 'actor': performing effort and talking about how hard you work without the numbers to back it up. - Tuning out when systems come up because you want motivation; the boring stuff is what creates wealth. - Dwelling on a setback for months; the goal is to shorten recovery to ten minutes. - Comparing yourself to people you assume are never scared; nobody is untouchable and most people are as scared as you. - Calling yourself a visionary when no vision you cast has ever become reality; that is just talk. - Expecting your team to support your future truth early; they will call it crazy until it pays, and then call stopping irresponsible. - Starting the identity audit and not finishing it; fewer than 1% had, and fewer than 20% were expected to take it seriously. - Sharing private audit answers instead of the useful learning; share what the exercise did for you, not every detail. - Working only with people you admire and drifting away from the people you are most qualified to help. - Letting the loneliness of the Thanksgiving table go unaddressed instead of building peers who understand the load. --- Cole's Notes Vault 2026 — https://vault.chels.ai — built by chels.ai (https://chels.ai). Only stage content is published; quotes are verbatim from automatic transcripts with light punctuation. Speaker-stated cadence and editorial recommendations are labelled separately. Times are Eastern; Las Vegas was three hours earlier.