My First Butler Experience

“Your full time butler’s name is Pedro, Mr. and Mrs. Evans.”

I’m sitting here in Cabo, at the One And Only, and it’s majestic. It’s literally 5:58 a.m. The sun will rise around 6:23; the view is of the Sea of Cortez with these amazing waves crashing with a cool boom sound to them.

Here's my office view as I write this

Its around 78 degrees already and the smells of the ocean are taking over.

It wasn’t always this way. You see, I grew up in small town Ohio; a country boy with a dream of making a $100k a year.

A $100k a year was my dream but to be honest, that was when I was 18 years old. If you fast forward to today, that $100k wouldn’t get me too far now. Heck I wouldn’t be able to make it past the 10th of the month with that. 

The reason I share that is because a dream is just that... a dream (not reality)! And when I was in the dream I really thought a $100k was a lot of money and my life would be different.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s not a lot of money... but I’d challenge you to think about the relativity of money: $100k is a lot of money for a popsicle... but it’s not a lot of money for a $1 million dollar house, right? $100k is a fortune to someone earning a few bucks at a fast food restaurant and has a family but it’s nothing to a person who only has a few weeks to live and doesn’t need the money.

I’m just painting the picture that all money is a tool. It’s all relative depending what you’re doing with it.

Think of college education: The average college degree is about $100k (give or take, depending on your program, not counting room and board and textbooks). And it’s going up. Meanwhile, jobs are going down. And so are a lot of wages. That’s not a good model and yet many people are going into debt for that amount or more to get a degree.

But I digress.

When my wife and I, with our son, went to the One and Only, we were swooped up in a private car from the airport and that was just the beginning—it set the stage for an extraordinary week.

You see, in the car they had it nice and cool, with cold bottled water, wipes for our hands, some snacks, and a very friendly driver.

We hopped in and he drove us direct to the resort where we were greeted by the front desk staff with popsicles and smiling faces... and 1 other person...

Pedro the butler.

You see, we didn’t go to a desk and check in. They already had our room all ready with everything on file to go.

Pedro whisked us to our room on a golf cart and shared some stuff with us on how to get a hold of him 24 hours a day. (They gave us a cell phone that goes direct to Pedro.)

He walks us into the room and it’s spectacular... I mean they didn’t cheap out on anything and their attention to detail is hands-down amazing.

I’ve been fortunate to stay at some pretty nice resorts but yet I’ve never had this experience level yet...

I mean a full time butler.  

Anyway, as I’ve been enjoying the week with some friends while hosting a Deal Maker Family mastermind, I’ve been thinking: How can I add things like this to my business (as there are levels within levels)?

Everyone at this resort has a butler but the higher the room, the more exclusive the butler.

Meaning: if you got a regular room, they do a butler for 1 in every 14 guests. They have another level for the room we’re in that’s 1 butler per room. And then they have a couple villas that have 2-3 full time butlers.

Again, levels in levels.

Either way, this place has been amazing.

Back to my butler Pedro.

He’s here literally at a drop of a hat on anything I need.

From car service, to putting my clothes away, to even packing my clothes to depart—it’s pretty amazing and may even sound a little “douchey...”

In fact, when we arrived, he asked, “Mr. Evans, when would you like us to unpack your clothes for you?”

I instantly said: “Don’t worry about it we’ll do that.” He looked at me as if I took the wind out of his sails... you see, he’s a butler and loves doing things for others like this. Remember that saying one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I also know that one man’s headache is another man’s passion.

Then I thought about it for a few seconds and said, “Actually, we’re going to the pool if you’d like to do that now.”

He smiled ear-to-ear and said, “Great, senor!”

We got our suits on while he waited outside on the golf cart for us.

The best part is, we get back from the pool, there’s music playing in the room, there are some nice snacks laid, out and you guessed it: the luggage is stored away and he put away all our clothes (in the most beautiful layout ever! It was so nice that I asked my wife how we could do the same thing at our house when we get back home). Pretty amazing.

 Our butler Pedro with me and my family

So we had Pedro’s phone number and would call him and ask for a drive from the room to the pool or wherever, and he’d be right out front pretty much 24 hours a day for us, smiling and very happy to be there.

I could get used to this! ... lol... but in all seriousness, we should ask ourselves: how can we apply this to our life and business?

In business, some people want the bare bones and some want the VIP level. What type are you?

I want the VIP... I want the first class... I want the private jet... I want the simple, best way to make my life easier (and often it’s not about just money, it’s about the convenience and the simple factor to me.)

There’s no right or wrong to this, by the way. It is what it is. As we elevate our life and game and income, we often move up the ring to this as we start to see what we like or dislike in life.

For example: I dislike standing in lines. Like, I HATE it. It drives me bananas. So, I work really hard to get VIP or fast pass or something so I don’t have to stand in lines.

Or another example: I don’t do small seats on the plane. So I either get first class or private. It wasn’t always that way but when I stepped my game up I made the decision to make more as well.

See the article here where I go into detail about that: Fly First Class

I often talk about the first car you had or the first apartment you had. Do they still exist? Of course they do... so why don’t you still drive the same car and live in the apartment?

Because we grow.

The question is: why do some get to different levels and others don’t?

We all have beliefs; some are good and some hold us back.

For example: Abundance beliefs: “If I spend this then I can’t give back to the charity I want.”

Am I being naïve that this money will last forever? If I invest in mentoring or coaching can I lose the money or is it an investment?

All these things have me thinking: I have a butler now. So, how does my mind expand on this and gain some high level insights to better the world and myself?  

How can I offer different level of services to my clients? Maybe some of my clients want to figure it out for themselves while others what a complete butler-style service where just about everything is done for them… and not just done but done with massive style and an eye for perfection.

A butler has made my life and my wife’s life so much easier: How can I carry over this same simplicity into the rest of my life?

For example, if I don’t have to do a task that I’ve always done without thinking about it, how I can use that extra time to level up my business or serve the people in the DM family? Or, maybe I don’t need a full-time butler but what about a cook? Or a driver? (Well, I love driving my Rolls so maybe I’m not quite ready for a driver just yet!) But you get my point.

How can I level up my mindset to know that what I know isn’t all there is to know? A simple example is just how my clothes were folded. I didn’t know clothes could be folded in such an amazing way and now my eyes are opened to that. What other things can I expand my mindset into? How might that level of service in my life change things dramatically?

A butler is a lot like flying first class: it seems ridiculously extravagant to those who have never done it but once you try it, it makes perfect sense and you wonder why you never did it before.

It all comes back to the quality of life and how you can make simple changes to add more time and more value to your life and business, which will allow you to add more time to the lives and businesses of other people.

Now that I don’t need to think about packing or unpacking my clothes… well, I can spend more time with Deena and Mark III. (Let me ask you: would you prefer to pack and unpack your clothes or spend more time with your family? We both agree that the answer is obvious—it’s better to spend more time with your family. And yet, how many of us give up time with your family to save money by packing or unpacking our own clothes).

Am I going to rush out and hire a butler to live with my family in Florida? No. But, my first butler experience has expanded my mind to realize that there are more opportunities out there that I have not yet tapped and higher levels that I can still stretch to… and every time I get a small taste of that next level, I’m hungry to grow into it.

Your friend and mentor,

Mark Evans DM,DN