652. Leaving #1 for Something Even Better

Clayton Morris

When Clayton left Fox and Friends Weekend, everyone thought he was nuts. Leaving one of the best broadcast jobs in the industry, when he had the number one cable news show? But he realized it was mostly fear and ego that was keeping him there.

Clayton Morris is a former FOX News Anchor who left the number one cable news show in the world after achieving financial freedom through his real estate company, Morris Invest. He now devotes himself to helping others buy their first rental property, build passive income and achieve financial freedom. After some epic failures, he has learned how to build a meaningful life, and he shares these lessons on his podcast, Investing in Real Estate.

How Did You Start Using Your Talents?

Even as Clayton was drawn to TV broadcasting, he was also sneaking down to Philadelphia and doing stand-up comedy at 15 and 16 years old. “I was fascinated by the mechanism of telling jokes and stories, studying Jerry Seinfeld, David Letterman and other great comedians. I put together my own routine and went to amateur nights. One of the crowning achievements of my young life was winning an amateur night with 12 other comedians, with a purse of around $200. I found out later that I had beaten two professional comedians. Other kids have sports trophies; I won an amateur comedy night when I was 15 years old.”

The Most Impactful Turning Point?

Early in his broadcasting career when he was anchoring the news at a local TV station, Clayton recalls asking himself, “What am I doing here? Am I a fake version of myself?” On a Christmas break, reading a book on broadcasting, a passage jumped out at him about being yourself. It said to communicate through the camera as if you are talking to your grandmother, connecting with her through a script. “Something in me switched. When I got back after Christmas, I started being myself on the air. That is when everything changed in my career. I eventually went to the network news because I made that shift to just being myself, not being a fake version of myself.”

The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?

“I want to live a more intentional life. It’s not about making X-amount of dollars. There’s got to be a reason, a why. Most people are focused on the Do, the mechanics of everything, and they do not even know why they are doing what they are doing. My Why is that I want to spend more time with my kids, travel, read science fiction in the middle of the afternoon, or listen to a record and not be answerable to anybody else. I want my little girl to be able to climb up my leg, sit there so I can feed her little snacks and laugh and run around, and not have to answer to anybody.”