WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Optimizing Beyond podcast. I'm
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Josh Negron, and this show is all about sharing
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lessons, ideas, and strategies that sharpen your
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thinking, strengthen your habits, and push you
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to grow beyond comfort zones. Let's dive in.
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Welcome back to the show. I'm joined again by
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my co -host, wife, Ashley. And today we want
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to talk about optimizing side hustles and finding
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your passions in order to execute those. We get
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those questions a lot. We have several businesses
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that we've had and grown over time. And so this
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is something that we love to talk about and that
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people ask us about. So we're going to cover
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what the main enemies of these kinds of things
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are, as well as some ideas of how to get to it,
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how to get into action and get those things started.
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And also that there's many ways to do these kinds
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of things, that there's not just one way to do
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it. And it kind of depends on your approach,
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your personality, and your risk aversion plays
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into that heavily. And then also whether you're
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going to go in it alone or if partnerships are
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going to be a realistic part of what you're doing.
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Some of that depends on kind of what you want
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to tackle and what you're interested in. And
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so we'll go through those today. Welcome to the
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show, Ashley. looking forward to this topic.
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Yes, it's something that we are super passionate
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about and love doing. So just a little bit about
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what we do is back in 2020, I started my first
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business and that was a sports car rental business
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back in April of 2020. And so my thought was
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it was something that I was I had a lot of interest
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in. I love cars. Cars are notorious for being
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terrible investments and being a burden on a
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family if you're into cars a lot. And so I was
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like, man, how can I turn this into something
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that would be less of a burden and that I could
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turn into a business that it could pay for at
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least some of it or maybe all of it? And so in
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April of 2020, I decided, hey, what is the best?
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This was before AI, so I couldn't chat with AI
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about it. And I was like, what would be the best
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car to start out with? What's the biggest bang
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for buck? And if you're a car guy. a corvette
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is is typically uh high on that list and so i
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was like sweet i'm gonna get a c7 corvette bought
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a 2014 2015 i got an automatic because unfortunately
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most people don't know three pedals especially
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if they're below a certain age so i picked that
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up i bought it in el paso and i was driving back
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when the shutdown started happening in the middle
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of covid now What a horrible time to start a
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business during the middle of this situation.
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But due to the nature of it, people were still
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allowed to drive. And driving was some of the
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only ways you could get out and not really be
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around anyone else. So the car rented out. all
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summer. It was crazy town. And there wasn't anything
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like that in our small town of Southwest Missouri.
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And so I realized, man, I might really have something
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here. And so I more than covered the expense
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of the car. Insurance is an interesting, tricky
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little booger. And so it wasn't like super successful
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from the financial front. I've had a lot of people
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ask me over the years, should I start a sports
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car rental business? I'm like, no, it's not for
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that purpose. But I started adding Added another
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car, a BMW convertible, and that did very well
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as well. And then brought on some partners that
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also had some good cars. And we grew the business
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to up to five cars. At one point, we had a high
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-end Mercedes, McLaren, and some other cars.
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It's been super fun. And since 2024, we've scaled
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the business down a little bit because when interest
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rates went up and business went. a little bit
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tighter. So it's just been that flux of that
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business over time, still running, still renting.
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In fact, the last two weekends, the cars are
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fully rented out for prom. and all those kinds
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of things. We're also heavily into real estate.
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We've started several other businesses and including
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a property management business as well. So these
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are things that we get asked about a lot. And
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so we wanted to cover some of these things. Now,
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the three enemies that I see pretty clearly that
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stop people from doing things like this, I'll
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list them into three. So being overly conservative,
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fear. which can coincide with that, obviously.
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And then perfectionism, this eternal preparation.
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So you're constantly like brainstorming and planning,
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but planning is not action. And so even before
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the AI age, and now during it, you could have
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a thousand chats with AI about all your ideas
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and give you a business plan and show me the
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way to do it. But if you just get stuck in the
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planning, nothing's ever going to happen. So
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Ashley, let's run through how you view these,
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starting with the overly conservative. How does
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that stop somebody from starting a business?
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Well, anytime you start a business, there is
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definitely this element of risk involved, right?
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Like you are pouring resources, time, money.
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effort, there's sacrifice involved. And so it
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can really, you can talk yourself out of it very
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quickly. Like, what if I do this? And then, well,
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here's all the reasons that I shouldn't. And
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so learning to take a risk is just like any,
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anything else that you have to learn how to optimize.
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It's a muscle that you have to learn to exercise
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and you have to flex it in order to become more
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comfortable with it. You know, and depending
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on like the way in which that you grew up or,
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you know, the household that you came from, this
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area of risk is something. that a lot of people
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just don't take, right? Like we have this aversion
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to failure. We actually opened a business a few
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years ago and it wasn't overly successful. And
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so we ended up selling it and we covered the
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expenses, like, but we didn't walk away with
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a lot from it, right? But the lessons that we
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learned through that. were invaluable and i'm
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not sure that we would have learned them any
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other way and so it's um like i said it's a muscle
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that you have to flex and you have to get comfortable
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with not looking at failure as something that
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defines who you are as a person or that the risk
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you know it may not pay off huge dividends But
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because of the mindset that you have and the
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way that you approach and look at things differently,
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what am I going to learn from this? What lessons
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and what strategies am I going to learn? What
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other things am I going to be able to pass on
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to other people? How can I help people learn
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from my own mistakes and my own failures, right?
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Like every failure is an opportunity to learn
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a lesson if that's the way that you choose to
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look at it. And so that's kind of the way I see
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people being too conservative is that kind of
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also tied to fear. Just, yeah, the... Risk is
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hard to take. And we so quickly talk ourselves
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out of it. Yeah. And like you said, this dovetails
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a lot with fear, obviously. You mentioned the
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fear of failure. And so this thought that you
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need to execute perfectly or that when you do
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a business, you're supposed to know everything
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up front. The problem is, is things don't always
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go how you predict. So you put all this effort
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into executing this and anticipating for that.
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And what if something else that you totally didn't
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plan for or anticipate, then your whole plan
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plan is garbage anyway. It was a complete waste
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of time to a certain degree. And then you have
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to pivot on the spot with the business already
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running. This happens countless times. You talk
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to any business owner and they're like, yeah,
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I mean, I totally didn't anticipate this. I actually
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didn't even plan on doing this and it ended up
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pivoting to this. And so some people get into
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business to think they're doing one thing and
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end up doing something completely different because.
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Through executing it this way, they realized
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there was actually a need that was maybe greater
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or slightly different or whatever it was. There's
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all of these pivots and we have, you know, our
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mentor Danelle Delgado says assets always adjust,
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you know, so Seth Godin in his books always talks
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about the concept of ship it. We've talked about
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that before, just do it. And so because of that,
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you are able to iterate on the spot. You can't
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always anticipate what's going to happen. And
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so there is that element. And so fear really
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does keep you from almost any action because
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that's often combined with running away or being
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paralyzed. And neither of those two exhibit any
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action that's useful in order to build a business.
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And so fear of failure is a huge one. The concept
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of failing forward and learning from your mistakes
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and executing and iterating on top of your failures
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is action. how you get better and how you get
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better ideas and implement and iterate more and
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so I've seen people that have started multiple
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businesses And when I mean multiple, I mean like
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a lot of businesses and it's almost second nature
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at that point. And they're able to just do it.
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There's minimal stress because they, they're
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like, yeah, I've done this before. This is easy,
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you know? And so fear is something huge that
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holds people back. And then the last one that
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I really, really fixated on, because this dovetails
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with my, I, you know, I call myself a recovering
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perfectionist, is that you are just stuck in
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this eternal preparation, right? And so James
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Clear talks about this in Atomic Habits in the
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book, and that preparing is fine, but if you
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spend too much time preparing, there's a point
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where you just have to start. And so I like to
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really make sure I'm aiming that shot, but if
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you never take the shot, it doesn't matter. And
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there's other people that like to shoot and then
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aim later. And so we always joke about that with
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those personality types. But there is some value
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there in realizing, hey, when someone is sighting
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in a rifle, you have to shoot multiple times
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because you have to see if you're aiming dead
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on and it's off, then you have to adjust, right?
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You just left, you're like, oh, well, okay. So
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that insinuates that you have to iterate. You
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have to have execution. You have to have action
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in order to adjust that later shot to get that
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dialed in. And business works exactly the same
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way. And so perfectionism. has a good heart behind
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it. However, again, I always say it's in the
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name, it's impossible. And in the same way, you
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can't be perfect, your business can't either.
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And so you just need to get started and get going.
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Yeah, I think, you know, it's one of those things
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where so many people are so capable of more than
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they give themselves credit for, right? Like,
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People have got these crazy hidden talents or
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these crazy ideas and we really are sometimes
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our own worst enemy and talking ourselves out
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of something that could bring so much good to
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the world or you could solve a problem that people
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have. I think it's one of the reasons I love
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honestly like watching clips of Shark Tank. It's
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like these are people who have taken a risk and
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have found some niche something that fills a
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void that meets a need. One of my favorite kitchen
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products is straight off a Shark Tank. And so
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it's one of those things that, you know, then
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once you learn the backstory and you learn about
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people and you learn about what made them do,
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decide to create this crazy brand, right? So
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many of them saw a need, filled a niche, and
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probably have created this product multiple times
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over until the iteration that they pitched on
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Shark Tank, right? Like they tried it and this
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part failed and they kept trying and this part
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failed. Every good break, starts as a series
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of failures. And you think about every big company,
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everybody that started in a garage or a basement,
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right, took that risk and took their shot and
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decided to just somewhat jump in with two feet.
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Now, you don't always have to do that, but there's
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a reason that that works and that you have to
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learn to be comfortable with that failure. And
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I think that's a muscle that you and I really
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over the last six or seven years have really
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worked on exercising and going, okay, like it's
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going to be okay. And we're going to choose to
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learn from it. And we're not, we're not going
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to make stupid decisions that put us in our family
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in a risk, right? But we're going to maybe. take
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more of a risk than our 20 -year -old selves
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would have because we've learned to flex that
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muscle. I totally agree. That is definitely true.
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We've made calculated decisions, but there have
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been times like in the car rental business, there
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were cars that I thought would be amazing to
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have and would rent well, and they just didn't.
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And so I had to make, like, hey, this car's not
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it. Sell it. Let's get something else. And so
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we did that multiple times. There were amazing
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cars that we had. We had an Audi R8 Spyder at
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one point. amazing car rented once, you know,
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maybe twice at a Toyota Supra, a brand new one.
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And it rented also like two or three times in
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a period of over a year. So amazing car, go -kart
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feel great looks. Yeah. It's a BMW. I get it,
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but super quick and really fun to drive. Nobody
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ever rented it. And so it was one of those things.
00:12:30.179 --> 00:12:31.460
It was like, man, I could have sworn this would
00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:34.120
have been a good hit and it just wasn't. So you
00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:35.559
can do all those things. You can beat yourself
00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:37.860
up and maybe you lose some money, but you have
00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:40.389
to really recognize how. you don't do that, not
00:12:40.389 --> 00:12:42.429
beating yourself up, moving forward, learning
00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:45.409
the lesson and maybe making an even better choice
00:12:45.409 --> 00:12:48.350
because of that other one in the future. So these
00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.889
are huge, huge things to overcome. But if you
00:12:51.889 --> 00:12:54.110
can, that means you can get started and start
00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:56.730
to actually. do some work. Now, people ask all
00:12:56.730 --> 00:12:59.669
the time, how do you do it? And some main questions
00:12:59.669 --> 00:13:02.070
that I would love for people to really exercise
00:13:02.070 --> 00:13:04.669
and think through that you can do a brainstorming
00:13:04.669 --> 00:13:06.289
session by yourself. You can have a conversation
00:13:06.289 --> 00:13:08.370
with AI about it, of course. And those are things
00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:11.690
like, what is your passion? What are you good
00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:13.730
at? And what do you love to do? Those things
00:13:13.730 --> 00:13:16.529
are important because sometimes they'll factor
00:13:16.529 --> 00:13:20.320
into an idea. to a business thought some sort
00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:22.539
of service and fit into some sort of passion
00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:25.000
that you would love to do love to offer the world
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:26.899
and so i'm like you said people aren't shark
00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:29.669
tank there's other things like you know, America's
00:13:29.669 --> 00:13:31.610
Got Talent and American Idol, where people have
00:13:31.610 --> 00:13:34.070
actual talents that they've never shown anyone,
00:13:34.250 --> 00:13:36.470
and it's just super cool to see. So that's a
00:13:36.470 --> 00:13:38.570
good question for people to ask, like, what do
00:13:38.570 --> 00:13:40.389
you love to do? What's your passion? What are
00:13:40.389 --> 00:13:43.409
you good at? Those really get to the heart of
00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:45.450
some of the things that you as an individual
00:13:45.450 --> 00:13:48.570
can offer that can be pretty massive in a business.
00:13:48.929 --> 00:13:51.429
And then there's common vehicles of business
00:13:51.429 --> 00:13:53.669
that, you know, whether that be, you know, maybe
00:13:53.669 --> 00:13:56.610
you're really savvy with numbers and investments,
00:13:56.649 --> 00:13:58.429
and that's something that you're like, interested
00:13:58.429 --> 00:14:02.309
in and really kind of nerdy about. And it wouldn't
00:14:02.309 --> 00:14:05.169
take a ton of effort for you to get like really
00:14:05.169 --> 00:14:07.750
good at executing those things for you and your
00:14:07.750 --> 00:14:10.850
family. There's obviously a massive vehicle of
00:14:10.850 --> 00:14:13.970
real estate. The barrier of entry is really high
00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:16.769
and from the looks of it, not changing, likely
00:14:16.769 --> 00:14:19.009
getting worse. And so there's people who want
00:14:19.009 --> 00:14:21.100
to get into real estate, but just. don't feel
00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:23.279
like they can. There's some clever ways that
00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.259
you can do that. I mean, just one Google search
00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:27.059
will reveal multiple techniques that you can
00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:29.159
do to get into real estate, but that is a very
00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:32.039
common, very popular way offering some sort of
00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:34.500
service to people. Like if there's a service
00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:36.379
that you think you can provide your town and
00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:38.700
there's not a lot of competition. That could
00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:40.860
be something very, very good if you have an idea
00:14:40.860 --> 00:14:43.019
for a product. And in this day and age, this
00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:45.899
isn't just a physical product. There's tons of
00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:48.620
people building things with AI, you know, with
00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:51.419
cloud code. You can do that in in lovable or
00:14:51.419 --> 00:14:53.980
any of those vibe coding apps. And you can build
00:14:53.980 --> 00:14:57.120
some really interesting things. A lot of my semi
00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.620
tech friends have built things initially to solve
00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:03.120
annoyances and problems in their own life. So
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.679
they're like, I'm only building this for me.
00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:07.419
And then people are like, hey, what? Like, can
00:15:07.419 --> 00:15:10.190
I? I use that. And some interesting apps have
00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:13.529
come out of people just building stuff that they
00:15:13.529 --> 00:15:16.529
wanted to fix some solution for their own life.
00:15:16.610 --> 00:15:19.450
And then other people ended up just wanting it.
00:15:19.490 --> 00:15:21.309
It's the same thing for a physical product. So
00:15:21.309 --> 00:15:23.210
if there's something that you think that you
00:15:23.210 --> 00:15:25.649
could do, that is a huge way to do it. And then
00:15:25.649 --> 00:15:28.269
just businesses with offerings that solve problems
00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:30.789
for people. If you follow entrepreneurs that
00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:32.690
are highly successful, they'll tell you that
00:15:32.690 --> 00:15:35.889
honestly, just solving a major problem for a
00:15:35.889 --> 00:15:38.940
large number of people, is a huge way to have
00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:42.399
a successful business. And so that's a massive,
00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.139
massive thing that you can do. And then the last
00:15:45.139 --> 00:15:47.940
thing that I want you to weigh is asking yourself
00:15:47.940 --> 00:15:51.820
about you and your role. So for some people,
00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.980
they'll end up being the bottleneck to that business,
00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.960
either because they're the one with the skill
00:15:58.490 --> 00:16:01.289
And that skill doesn't scale unless they can
00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:04.190
multiply that skill to somebody else. And so
00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:07.149
think of things like trade, like repair or the
00:16:07.149 --> 00:16:09.250
tactile trades where you do things with your
00:16:09.250 --> 00:16:11.750
hands. If you're the only one that's doing it
00:16:11.750 --> 00:16:14.250
and it's difficult to teach, this is going to
00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:17.210
be a business that could be limiting as far as
00:16:17.210 --> 00:16:19.690
scale and growth. If growth and scale are not
00:16:19.690 --> 00:16:21.649
something you're super passionate about, you're
00:16:21.649 --> 00:16:23.659
like, no, I just want to do this. That's totally
00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:25.299
fine. But you need to have that on your radar
00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:28.519
to know ahead of time that I have some friends,
00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:30.879
even with flourishing businesses, they feel like
00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.779
they're stuck. And that's the other piece that
00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:36.179
business owners can get stuck in that role where
00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:39.220
they're still the pivotal person where the business.
00:16:39.710 --> 00:16:42.090
can't run without them being there. So they're
00:16:42.090 --> 00:16:44.450
stuck working in the business, not on the business.
00:16:44.710 --> 00:16:46.929
And so even if you do get people that you can
00:16:46.929 --> 00:16:49.909
teach those skills to, or it's actually not dependent
00:16:49.909 --> 00:16:52.029
on a skill of yours, but it's still dependent
00:16:52.029 --> 00:16:56.049
to run with and around you, then that is another
00:16:56.049 --> 00:16:58.149
scale problem that you need to think through
00:16:58.149 --> 00:17:01.090
of how can you teach others to help you run it?
00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:03.269
How can you teach others to have the same skill
00:17:03.269 --> 00:17:06.130
set if that's necessary? And how do you get out
00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:07.809
from being stuck in your business? Those are
00:17:07.809 --> 00:17:10.269
huge things that business coaches and mentors
00:17:10.269 --> 00:17:12.470
teach about all the time because this is a very,
00:17:12.490 --> 00:17:14.490
very common thing that people get stuck in. And
00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:17.369
so this leads me to the fact that there's so
00:17:17.369 --> 00:17:21.309
many different ways to do this and so many different
00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:24.670
people types to execute. And so what I mean by
00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:27.470
that is, is there's a spectrum of different people
00:17:27.470 --> 00:17:30.769
where you can still be an effective person in
00:17:30.769 --> 00:17:34.019
business and highly successful. and be very conservative.
00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.980
Whereas on the other side of that spectrum, you
00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:39.900
can be extremely aggressive, leverage aggressively,
00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:43.799
and also scale quickly. And so there are countless
00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.380
examples on both sides. Probably the most famous
00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:48.859
on the conservative side is Dave Ramsey. And
00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:52.880
he is very, very conservative, and he's consistent
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.900
with those techniques. And I have a personal
00:17:55.900 --> 00:18:00.329
friend who has been, who has... who has used
00:18:00.329 --> 00:18:03.569
a lot of his principles to pay off his house.
00:18:03.670 --> 00:18:05.650
And he has a rental house that's been paid off
00:18:05.650 --> 00:18:09.009
for several years. And in so doing has been saving
00:18:09.009 --> 00:18:12.329
for his second rental house to either do very
00:18:12.329 --> 00:18:15.589
short -term financing or pay in cash. And then
00:18:15.589 --> 00:18:17.630
he's like, I just want to snowball. And then
00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:20.349
his goal is in five years, I want to have five
00:18:20.349 --> 00:18:23.609
rental houses all paid off. And so, and then
00:18:23.609 --> 00:18:26.049
just snowball that into getting a sixth. And
00:18:26.049 --> 00:18:29.109
so obviously at some point that momentum. is
00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:32.309
going to propel him into being able to have a
00:18:32.309 --> 00:18:35.549
sizable portfolio with all the equity out there
00:18:35.549 --> 00:18:39.589
and the ability to use that rent to do whatever,
00:18:39.789 --> 00:18:43.589
retire or keep buying. And so that's crazy, but
00:18:43.589 --> 00:18:46.630
it is the slow play for sure, right? So it takes
00:18:46.630 --> 00:18:49.589
multiple years, decades to do things that...
00:18:50.059 --> 00:18:53.819
People are impatient. That's why get rich, quit
00:18:53.819 --> 00:18:56.200
schemes are so schemey, right? Because they're
00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.319
like, well, what if I just win the lottery? That'd
00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:00.700
be so much easier. So by that, there goes the
00:19:00.700 --> 00:19:04.460
ability to get more aggressive and to use leverage
00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:06.819
to... Because there are some people that I know
00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:10.759
that would be like, if I had a... asset that
00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:12.579
was completely paid off, I would immediately
00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:14.779
leverage it and use that as a down payment for
00:19:14.779 --> 00:19:17.140
three more properties, right? And there's people
00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:18.799
already that are listening to this and like,
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:20.640
yeah, dude, that's like, that's exactly what
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.680
I would do. Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong
00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:24.279
with that as long as you don't over leverage
00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:26.359
yourself and you stay responsible. And there's
00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:29.640
financial advisors and mentors and even bankers
00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:31.900
that can help you do that in a way that where
00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:33.960
you're not putting yourself in compromised positions.
00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.720
And then you can grow that equity and grow your
00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.900
portfolio or your business that way. Obviously,
00:19:38.900 --> 00:19:40.940
the more aggressive you are, the more risky it
00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:44.279
is. If things go sideways, then you might have
00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:45.740
to be stuck in a situation where you have to
00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:47.960
liquidate quickly. That's never good for getting
00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:50.599
a great price. And so you need to make sure that
00:19:50.599 --> 00:19:52.259
you have good connections and good partners.
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:55.140
That has mattered for us. It's easy to look at
00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:58.140
a bank and... be immediately negative. But there
00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:01.140
is a huge difference between a good bank partnership
00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:04.579
and one that is just a stiff -necked bank where
00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:06.940
you don't have any people that you know and trust
00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:09.559
in that organization to help you. And so that's
00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:12.220
super important to know where your comfort level
00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:15.450
is. with those kinds of things. If you are going
00:20:15.450 --> 00:20:18.309
outside your comfort zone in that area, then
00:20:18.309 --> 00:20:20.910
you can really sacrifice a tremendous amount
00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:24.089
of peace, which in my opinion, isn't worth it
00:20:24.089 --> 00:20:26.230
if you're going against that. People say, well,
00:20:26.329 --> 00:20:27.990
you only grow when you're uncomfortable. I get
00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.450
that, that kind of philosophy of like getting
00:20:30.450 --> 00:20:33.470
out of your comfort zone. Sure. In this specific
00:20:33.470 --> 00:20:36.529
regard, talking about debt and leveraging and
00:20:36.529 --> 00:20:38.450
being aggressive in that route, I think it's
00:20:38.450 --> 00:20:42.329
important to do some. internal review and understand
00:20:42.329 --> 00:20:45.410
what you're comfortable with. And the friend
00:20:45.410 --> 00:20:47.410
that I mentioned earlier that was doing it in
00:20:47.410 --> 00:20:49.609
this snowball method, he's about to buy his second
00:20:49.609 --> 00:20:52.809
one and he's got a good goal, that five goal.
00:20:52.950 --> 00:20:55.269
And the math makes sense. He's going to achieve
00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:58.430
it and he's going to be 100 % at peace with it
00:20:58.430 --> 00:21:00.309
and never stress about it. And he's going to
00:21:00.309 --> 00:21:03.490
retain ultimate flexibility. If the worst happens
00:21:03.490 --> 00:21:06.869
in every horrible scenario, it doesn't matter.
00:21:06.970 --> 00:21:09.150
He's good to go. He owned that first rental house
00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:12.069
during COVID and it didn't matter because it
00:21:12.069 --> 00:21:14.630
was paid off. So even if the renter stopped paying
00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:16.589
rent, because there's a lot of people that couldn't
00:21:16.589 --> 00:21:19.009
afford rent during the shutdowns, he's like,
00:21:19.029 --> 00:21:20.750
it wasn't a big deal because I didn't know the
00:21:20.750 --> 00:21:22.750
bank anything. So we're just chilling, waiting.
00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:26.299
And so that's just something that is very personal
00:21:26.299 --> 00:21:28.000
to you. A lot of people have strong opinions
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.119
about it and can really sour your pudding if
00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:33.700
they're giving unsolicited advice. But just keep
00:21:33.700 --> 00:21:35.980
in mind, this is something that you need to explore
00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:38.619
for yourself. It can change too. I'm wired way
00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:41.000
more conservatively than a lot of people. And
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.160
so initially, I had to work through some of that
00:21:43.160 --> 00:21:45.460
in that. And that leads me to the last piece
00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:48.319
that dovetails with this as far as doing it alone
00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:51.670
or having a partner. And so my business partner
00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:55.529
is much more aggressive than I am as far as risk
00:21:55.529 --> 00:21:58.430
aversion, does not have much risk aversion. And
00:21:58.430 --> 00:22:01.630
so for me, actually, that's a really good yin
00:22:01.630 --> 00:22:04.470
and yang scenario because we can really work
00:22:04.470 --> 00:22:08.210
through opportunities in a very holistic way,
00:22:08.309 --> 00:22:10.710
I believe, and seeing multiple dimensions of
00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:13.670
any particular opportunity. And that's been a
00:22:13.670 --> 00:22:17.009
really, really good combination. And also, We
00:22:17.009 --> 00:22:18.890
can talk about this more when I have him on the
00:22:18.890 --> 00:22:21.630
show, but there's this dynamic between us that
00:22:21.630 --> 00:22:24.450
he's a visionary and I'm an integrator, which
00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:27.049
is to borrow some of Gino Wickman's verbiage
00:22:27.049 --> 00:22:29.930
out of traction in how we both look at business
00:22:29.930 --> 00:22:32.529
differently. And again, that also helps us execute
00:22:32.529 --> 00:22:35.109
on another level where it has a multiplicative
00:22:35.109 --> 00:22:38.210
effect where one plus one is not equal to, it's
00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:40.470
actually much, much more. And this is something
00:22:40.470 --> 00:22:42.490
that, again, is also a very personal decision
00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:46.410
to bring in a partner because when I... went
00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:49.210
into my first business and brought on a partner.
00:22:49.609 --> 00:22:52.690
This was something I sought advice from several
00:22:52.690 --> 00:22:55.930
people. And one businessman that I greatly respect
00:22:55.930 --> 00:22:58.690
told me he's not a fan of partnerships. And he
00:22:58.690 --> 00:23:01.910
said, partnerships work until they don't. Investors
00:23:01.910 --> 00:23:03.589
are one thing, but I don't think I'll ever do
00:23:03.589 --> 00:23:06.210
it. And I went against his advice, obviously,
00:23:06.250 --> 00:23:09.430
spoiler. And the way I viewed it, this was personal.
00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:12.269
I viewed it like. In the same way that you can
00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:14.750
look at marriage metrics and say, well, half
00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:17.430
of people get divorced, so why get married? I
00:23:17.430 --> 00:23:19.529
think you can look at it that way. I don't think
00:23:19.529 --> 00:23:21.190
that's, I mean, I'm married and I think it's
00:23:21.190 --> 00:23:23.549
worth it. And I think other people, if you find
00:23:23.549 --> 00:23:25.109
people with healthy marriages, they'll be like,
00:23:25.190 --> 00:23:27.880
yeah, no, I don't regret it one bit. Well, if
00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:29.960
you go into it looking at the statistics, you
00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:31.880
might think, you know, I mean, it's a 50 -50
00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.819
shot. It'll be awesome or horrible. I think your
00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:37.559
role has something to do with that as well as
00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:39.660
your partner's. And so we always talk about you
00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:41.200
can only control yourself. You can't control
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:43.160
other people. The same applies for a marriage.
00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:44.779
And I think also the same thing applies for a
00:23:44.779 --> 00:23:48.319
partnership. Anytime that you go into a partnership,
00:23:48.579 --> 00:23:50.339
there are things that are going to be more difficult.
00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:53.200
There's another person or persons there that
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:56.140
you have to, it can be clunky. You have to communicate
00:23:56.140 --> 00:23:59.759
like all the very simple, very similar concepts
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.339
to a marriage. They have to be intentional and
00:24:02.339 --> 00:24:04.819
those kinds of things we talk about often. And
00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:08.640
so for me, it was worth it not going in it alone,
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:11.839
like working alongside others that are locked
00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:13.759
arm in arm with you is something that has been
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:16.359
really fulfilling for me. And so that for me
00:24:16.359 --> 00:24:18.240
has been the answer. But for other people, they're
00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:20.460
like, no, I like being a sole proprietor. I like
00:24:20.460 --> 00:24:23.380
being the single person to make decisions and
00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:25.859
head it forward. But the more you scale and grow,
00:24:26.019 --> 00:24:29.240
sometimes you realize, man, I need variety. I
00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:31.430
need a different. spread of people around me.
00:24:31.470 --> 00:24:33.769
Sometimes that can be employees and it can be
00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:36.549
good, but other times partners and people that
00:24:36.549 --> 00:24:38.490
are level with you can really offer something
00:24:38.490 --> 00:24:40.569
completely different because you don't sign their
00:24:40.569 --> 00:24:42.349
paychecks. It's a little bit different. Yeah,
00:24:42.390 --> 00:24:44.569
I think, you know, that's that's such a personal
00:24:44.569 --> 00:24:47.289
decision. The cool thing is that we all bring
00:24:47.289 --> 00:24:50.490
so many different unique skills and abilities
00:24:50.490 --> 00:24:53.509
to the table. So, you know, if you're if you're
00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:56.529
like, man, I don't know, like maybe like being
00:24:56.529 --> 00:24:58.650
the hype person, being the marketing person,
00:24:58.730 --> 00:25:00.710
like that's not my skill set. Find someone to
00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:02.950
do it with you. You know, there's there is so
00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:06.230
many ways to structure a partnership, a business.
00:25:06.329 --> 00:25:08.990
Get creative with it. Have fun with it. You know,
00:25:08.990 --> 00:25:12.519
use it as a way to invest. in other people to
00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:14.900
bring them alongside you. You never know what
00:25:14.900 --> 00:25:17.559
the reward for that may end up being someday.
00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:21.200
Just like any other relationship in life, it's
00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:24.019
not guaranteed, but learning to work through,
00:25:24.099 --> 00:25:26.720
like you said, the communication and having trust
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:29.299
in each other that you want to make this work
00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:32.920
is, I think, worth the risk. Money does do weird
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:35.960
things to people. And so if it gets super successful,
00:25:36.180 --> 00:25:38.519
you may see a different side of people. But like
00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:40.839
you said, you have to control you and how you
00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:44.460
approach it and to be someone to be in that partnership
00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:46.940
with. And so it's definitely not for everybody
00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:48.779
and it's not for every business that you may
00:25:48.779 --> 00:25:51.099
even own. You know, you never know what that's
00:25:51.099 --> 00:25:52.980
going to look like. Both of those two things
00:25:52.980 --> 00:25:54.400
that you were just talking about definitely are
00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:55.920
something that has to do with personal comfort
00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:59.460
level and something for you to think through,
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:03.240
to research, to look at different ways. The cool
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:06.269
thing about the capitalist society that we live
00:26:06.269 --> 00:26:08.529
in is there's so many different ways in which
00:26:08.529 --> 00:26:11.470
to accomplish a goal. And so sometimes half of
00:26:11.470 --> 00:26:13.789
the fun is the creativity and the journey to
00:26:13.789 --> 00:26:17.009
get to that goal. And so use it as an opportunity
00:26:17.009 --> 00:26:19.789
to learn, research, learn things online, start
00:26:19.789 --> 00:26:22.910
watching YouTubes of people who are kind of doing
00:26:22.910 --> 00:26:25.349
a similar thing to what you're doing. Start researching
00:26:25.349 --> 00:26:27.990
and learning, even if for some reason you decide
00:26:27.990 --> 00:26:30.779
that that's not the business. You've spent your
00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:33.720
time learning something. You're flexing a muscle.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:36.059
You're farther down the road than maybe what
00:26:36.059 --> 00:26:39.559
you were before. And so use it. Don't see it
00:26:39.559 --> 00:26:41.319
as a waste of time. See it as like, oh, cool.
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.420
I learned something new, right? It's all about
00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:46.539
the way in which that you look at it and the
00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:48.299
mindset that you view it through. And so I think
00:26:48.299 --> 00:26:51.059
this just really fits into, you know, so much
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.319
of the things that we've been talking about,
00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:54.500
about optimizing our lives. You know, this topic
00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:56.619
actually came up because I had one of the young
00:26:56.619 --> 00:26:58.579
ladies that works with us just ask like, hey,
00:26:58.660 --> 00:27:01.119
what else do you do? And how do I get into that?
00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:03.119
And she's super interested in that. And so she's
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:05.220
just like starting to think and figure it out
00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:07.440
and ask questions. And so I think that's the
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.539
best way for that to start. You know, some people
00:27:09.539 --> 00:27:12.740
do a side hustle or do whatever because it's
00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:15.380
It's a way to have fun and a passion and eventually
00:27:15.380 --> 00:27:17.539
take over their W -2 job. Some people, it's a
00:27:17.539 --> 00:27:21.000
way to save on their taxes. Sometimes it's that
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.079
they have this thing happen in their lives and
00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:25.799
they have to figure out how to meet this void
00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:28.140
or maybe there's something that happens and you
00:27:28.140 --> 00:27:31.440
have to create this product to fill and meet
00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:33.279
a need in your own life. And you're like, oh
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:36.140
man, what if other people also wanted to think
00:27:36.140 --> 00:27:38.079
that this was really cool? And we live in a day
00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:40.140
and age where you can do your own marketing.
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:43.039
It's so free and it's so easy. And there's so
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:45.660
many resources, more resources available to you
00:27:45.660 --> 00:27:50.000
to start a business than any other time in history.
00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:52.779
And so if that's something that you're interested
00:27:52.779 --> 00:27:55.609
in, take the leap. do some research, put together
00:27:55.609 --> 00:27:58.049
a business plan, ask other people who are business
00:27:58.049 --> 00:28:01.109
owners, and then just see what happens. You genuinely
00:28:01.109 --> 00:28:03.690
never know where it may take you. And honestly,
00:28:03.930 --> 00:28:07.009
like that's half the fun is the journey of figuring
00:28:07.009 --> 00:28:09.849
out and heading down that path. Yeah. And I mean,
00:28:09.910 --> 00:28:12.970
I know sometimes people get a little AI fatigued,
00:28:12.970 --> 00:28:16.000
but I mean. This is something that, like I said,
00:28:16.019 --> 00:28:18.019
when I started my first business, AI wasn't a
00:28:18.019 --> 00:28:20.900
thing. And it would have been super helpful to
00:28:20.900 --> 00:28:24.200
have something like AI. I think information aggregation
00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.000
is something it really does help with, where
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:28.480
you're like, hey, I'm thinking of like... These
00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:30.279
are my passions. This is what I'm good at. What
00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:32.839
do you think I could do? Or like, this is a good
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:34.759
business I'm interested in. Can you show me other
00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:37.259
examples of how people have done it? You can
00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:39.319
ask it all sorts of interesting things to get
00:28:39.319 --> 00:28:42.240
forward movement to the things that you're stuck
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.000
in. You know, like, I don't know how I would
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:45.799
do that. Or I don't even know who I would talk
00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:47.640
to or, you know, whatever. And it could be like,
00:28:47.700 --> 00:28:50.180
no, just do this and do that. And I mean, I had
00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.279
to figure out all that stuff from the get go.
00:28:52.809 --> 00:28:54.890
just one at a time? Like, you know, how does
00:28:54.890 --> 00:28:56.910
a brand new business that's never done any business
00:28:56.910 --> 00:28:59.009
get a loan for a car? That's a weird question.
00:28:59.130 --> 00:29:01.390
And so it was when I had to humbly walk into
00:29:01.390 --> 00:29:02.970
my bank and be like, hey, this is what I'm looking
00:29:02.970 --> 00:29:04.990
to do. What do you guys think? They were willing
00:29:04.990 --> 00:29:06.329
to give me a chance. They're like, I mean, it.
00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:08.220
And it was pretty low risk for them. They're
00:29:08.220 --> 00:29:10.380
like, oh, this is a, I mean, we would loan you
00:29:10.380 --> 00:29:12.500
the individual. It's a car loan. They weren't,
00:29:12.500 --> 00:29:14.460
it wasn't that scary to them. So there's other
00:29:14.460 --> 00:29:16.720
things that you could ask AI and get answers
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:18.900
to your questions to again, to get forward movement
00:29:18.900 --> 00:29:21.259
to your thoughts, to the things that are swimming
00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:23.900
up in your head that never quite make it to action.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:25.599
So I hope some of that information was helpful.
00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:27.380
If there's some things swimming around your head
00:29:27.380 --> 00:29:29.519
that you're thinking of doing, like what is holding
00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:32.240
you back? What is stopping you from taking action?
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:34.279
And start asking yourself, what are the things
00:29:34.279 --> 00:29:36.259
that you're passionate about that? you think
00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:38.460
that you can offer the world? Are there any ideas
00:29:38.460 --> 00:29:40.920
or products that you think that you could be
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:43.720
a facilitator for to help? These things are really
00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:46.240
awesome questions to ask. And what approaches
00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:48.680
could you take? What is going to be your technique?
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.319
These are good things to know in order to kind
00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:53.759
of assess kind of the paths that you could potentially
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:56.920
take on some ideas that you might have in order
00:29:56.920 --> 00:29:59.539
to execute an awesome business potentially. Thanks
00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:01.279
for listening to the Optimizing Beyond podcast.
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:03.519
Remember, growth happens when you take action.
00:30:03.660 --> 00:30:05.880
So subscribe, share this with a friend, and most
00:30:05.880 --> 00:30:07.859
importantly, put what you learned into practice
00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:11.720
because we know that daily anything changes everything.
00:00:02.109 --> 00:00:05.169
Welcome to the Optimizing Beyond podcast. I'm
00:00:05.169 --> 00:00:07.389
Josh Negron, and this show is all about sharing
00:00:07.389 --> 00:00:11.109
lessons, ideas, and strategies that sharpen your
00:00:11.109 --> 00:00:13.949
thinking, strengthen your habits, and push you
00:00:13.949 --> 00:00:17.050
to grow beyond comfort zones. Let's dive in.
00:00:20.829 --> 00:00:23.250
Welcome back to the show. I'm joined again by
00:00:23.250 --> 00:00:26.309
my co -host, wife, Ashley. And today we want
00:00:26.309 --> 00:00:30.170
to talk about optimizing side hustles and finding
00:00:30.170 --> 00:00:32.649
your passions in order to execute those. We get
00:00:32.649 --> 00:00:34.450
those questions a lot. We have several businesses
00:00:34.450 --> 00:00:37.590
that we've had and grown over time. And so this
00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:39.710
is something that we love to talk about and that
00:00:39.710 --> 00:00:41.719
people ask us about. So we're going to cover
00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:44.159
what the main enemies of these kinds of things
00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:48.259
are, as well as some ideas of how to get to it,
00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:50.479
how to get into action and get those things started.
00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:53.740
And also that there's many ways to do these kinds
00:00:53.740 --> 00:00:56.079
of things, that there's not just one way to do
00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:58.140
it. And it kind of depends on your approach,
00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:01.539
your personality, and your risk aversion plays
00:01:01.539 --> 00:01:03.979
into that heavily. And then also whether you're
00:01:03.979 --> 00:01:06.719
going to go in it alone or if partnerships are
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:08.859
going to be a realistic part of what you're doing.
00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:10.760
Some of that depends on kind of what you want
00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:12.700
to tackle and what you're interested in. And
00:01:12.700 --> 00:01:15.000
so we'll go through those today. Welcome to the
00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.019
show, Ashley. looking forward to this topic.
00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:19.500
Yes, it's something that we are super passionate
00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:22.620
about and love doing. So just a little bit about
00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:26.079
what we do is back in 2020, I started my first
00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:29.319
business and that was a sports car rental business
00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:33.159
back in April of 2020. And so my thought was
00:01:33.159 --> 00:01:36.099
it was something that I was I had a lot of interest
00:01:36.099 --> 00:01:39.319
in. I love cars. Cars are notorious for being
00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:42.680
terrible investments and being a burden on a
00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:46.019
family if you're into cars a lot. And so I was
00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:47.959
like, man, how can I turn this into something
00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:50.640
that would be less of a burden and that I could
00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:52.980
turn into a business that it could pay for at
00:01:52.980 --> 00:01:55.879
least some of it or maybe all of it? And so in
00:01:55.879 --> 00:01:58.780
April of 2020, I decided, hey, what is the best?
00:01:58.859 --> 00:02:00.739
This was before AI, so I couldn't chat with AI
00:02:00.739 --> 00:02:03.099
about it. And I was like, what would be the best
00:02:03.099 --> 00:02:04.959
car to start out with? What's the biggest bang
00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:08.270
for buck? And if you're a car guy. a corvette
00:02:08.270 --> 00:02:11.270
is is typically uh high on that list and so i
00:02:11.270 --> 00:02:13.789
was like sweet i'm gonna get a c7 corvette bought
00:02:13.789 --> 00:02:18.030
a 2014 2015 i got an automatic because unfortunately
00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:20.389
most people don't know three pedals especially
00:02:20.389 --> 00:02:22.870
if they're below a certain age so i picked that
00:02:22.870 --> 00:02:25.110
up i bought it in el paso and i was driving back
00:02:25.110 --> 00:02:27.490
when the shutdown started happening in the middle
00:02:27.490 --> 00:02:30.439
of covid now What a horrible time to start a
00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:32.219
business during the middle of this situation.
00:02:32.780 --> 00:02:36.180
But due to the nature of it, people were still
00:02:36.180 --> 00:02:38.199
allowed to drive. And driving was some of the
00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:41.219
only ways you could get out and not really be
00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:44.090
around anyone else. So the car rented out. all
00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:46.889
summer. It was crazy town. And there wasn't anything
00:02:46.889 --> 00:02:49.310
like that in our small town of Southwest Missouri.
00:02:49.569 --> 00:02:52.110
And so I realized, man, I might really have something
00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:54.349
here. And so I more than covered the expense
00:02:54.349 --> 00:02:56.830
of the car. Insurance is an interesting, tricky
00:02:56.830 --> 00:03:00.289
little booger. And so it wasn't like super successful
00:03:00.289 --> 00:03:02.310
from the financial front. I've had a lot of people
00:03:02.310 --> 00:03:04.289
ask me over the years, should I start a sports
00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:07.469
car rental business? I'm like, no, it's not for
00:03:07.469 --> 00:03:12.000
that purpose. But I started adding Added another
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.860
car, a BMW convertible, and that did very well
00:03:14.860 --> 00:03:17.680
as well. And then brought on some partners that
00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:19.860
also had some good cars. And we grew the business
00:03:19.860 --> 00:03:23.240
to up to five cars. At one point, we had a high
00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:26.419
-end Mercedes, McLaren, and some other cars.
00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:30.000
It's been super fun. And since 2024, we've scaled
00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.379
the business down a little bit because when interest
00:03:32.379 --> 00:03:34.639
rates went up and business went. a little bit
00:03:34.639 --> 00:03:36.840
tighter. So it's just been that flux of that
00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.139
business over time, still running, still renting.
00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:41.419
In fact, the last two weekends, the cars are
00:03:41.419 --> 00:03:43.960
fully rented out for prom. and all those kinds
00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.400
of things. We're also heavily into real estate.
00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.300
We've started several other businesses and including
00:03:49.300 --> 00:03:51.800
a property management business as well. So these
00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.099
are things that we get asked about a lot. And
00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.659
so we wanted to cover some of these things. Now,
00:03:56.719 --> 00:03:59.479
the three enemies that I see pretty clearly that
00:03:59.479 --> 00:04:02.340
stop people from doing things like this, I'll
00:04:02.340 --> 00:04:05.180
list them into three. So being overly conservative,
00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:09.110
fear. which can coincide with that, obviously.
00:04:09.189 --> 00:04:12.349
And then perfectionism, this eternal preparation.
00:04:12.449 --> 00:04:15.389
So you're constantly like brainstorming and planning,
00:04:15.509 --> 00:04:19.180
but planning is not action. And so even before
00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:21.959
the AI age, and now during it, you could have
00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:24.779
a thousand chats with AI about all your ideas
00:04:24.779 --> 00:04:26.600
and give you a business plan and show me the
00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:29.180
way to do it. But if you just get stuck in the
00:04:29.180 --> 00:04:31.180
planning, nothing's ever going to happen. So
00:04:31.180 --> 00:04:33.079
Ashley, let's run through how you view these,
00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:35.139
starting with the overly conservative. How does
00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:37.579
that stop somebody from starting a business?
00:04:38.110 --> 00:04:40.189
Well, anytime you start a business, there is
00:04:40.189 --> 00:04:43.990
definitely this element of risk involved, right?
00:04:44.089 --> 00:04:48.490
Like you are pouring resources, time, money.
00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:51.920
effort, there's sacrifice involved. And so it
00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:54.720
can really, you can talk yourself out of it very
00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:56.779
quickly. Like, what if I do this? And then, well,
00:04:56.959 --> 00:04:58.680
here's all the reasons that I shouldn't. And
00:04:58.680 --> 00:05:01.199
so learning to take a risk is just like any,
00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:03.060
anything else that you have to learn how to optimize.
00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:05.819
It's a muscle that you have to learn to exercise
00:05:05.819 --> 00:05:09.120
and you have to flex it in order to become more
00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:11.040
comfortable with it. You know, and depending
00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.779
on like the way in which that you grew up or,
00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:16.300
you know, the household that you came from, this
00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:18.959
area of risk is something. that a lot of people
00:05:18.959 --> 00:05:23.240
just don't take, right? Like we have this aversion
00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:27.399
to failure. We actually opened a business a few
00:05:27.399 --> 00:05:30.699
years ago and it wasn't overly successful. And
00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:33.560
so we ended up selling it and we covered the
00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:35.959
expenses, like, but we didn't walk away with
00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:39.240
a lot from it, right? But the lessons that we
00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:42.860
learned through that. were invaluable and i'm
00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:44.920
not sure that we would have learned them any
00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.240
other way and so it's um like i said it's a muscle
00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.279
that you have to flex and you have to get comfortable
00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:53.500
with not looking at failure as something that
00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:56.759
defines who you are as a person or that the risk
00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:59.889
you know it may not pay off huge dividends But
00:05:59.889 --> 00:06:01.750
because of the mindset that you have and the
00:06:01.750 --> 00:06:03.550
way that you approach and look at things differently,
00:06:03.730 --> 00:06:05.949
what am I going to learn from this? What lessons
00:06:05.949 --> 00:06:07.750
and what strategies am I going to learn? What
00:06:07.750 --> 00:06:09.389
other things am I going to be able to pass on
00:06:09.389 --> 00:06:11.550
to other people? How can I help people learn
00:06:11.550 --> 00:06:13.709
from my own mistakes and my own failures, right?
00:06:13.829 --> 00:06:16.949
Like every failure is an opportunity to learn
00:06:16.949 --> 00:06:19.009
a lesson if that's the way that you choose to
00:06:19.009 --> 00:06:22.050
look at it. And so that's kind of the way I see
00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:25.350
people being too conservative is that kind of
00:06:25.350 --> 00:06:29.000
also tied to fear. Just, yeah, the... Risk is
00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.579
hard to take. And we so quickly talk ourselves
00:06:31.579 --> 00:06:34.459
out of it. Yeah. And like you said, this dovetails
00:06:34.459 --> 00:06:36.920
a lot with fear, obviously. You mentioned the
00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:39.759
fear of failure. And so this thought that you
00:06:39.759 --> 00:06:42.519
need to execute perfectly or that when you do
00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:44.579
a business, you're supposed to know everything
00:06:44.579 --> 00:06:46.959
up front. The problem is, is things don't always
00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:49.980
go how you predict. So you put all this effort
00:06:49.980 --> 00:06:52.800
into executing this and anticipating for that.
00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:56.019
And what if something else that you totally didn't
00:06:56.019 --> 00:06:57.879
plan for or anticipate, then your whole plan
00:06:57.839 --> 00:06:59.819
plan is garbage anyway. It was a complete waste
00:06:59.819 --> 00:07:02.180
of time to a certain degree. And then you have
00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:05.560
to pivot on the spot with the business already
00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:08.100
running. This happens countless times. You talk
00:07:08.100 --> 00:07:09.879
to any business owner and they're like, yeah,
00:07:09.899 --> 00:07:12.420
I mean, I totally didn't anticipate this. I actually
00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.339
didn't even plan on doing this and it ended up
00:07:15.339 --> 00:07:17.740
pivoting to this. And so some people get into
00:07:17.740 --> 00:07:19.759
business to think they're doing one thing and
00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:21.939
end up doing something completely different because.
00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.139
Through executing it this way, they realized
00:07:25.139 --> 00:07:27.360
there was actually a need that was maybe greater
00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:30.220
or slightly different or whatever it was. There's
00:07:30.220 --> 00:07:32.480
all of these pivots and we have, you know, our
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.459
mentor Danelle Delgado says assets always adjust,
00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:37.959
you know, so Seth Godin in his books always talks
00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:39.879
about the concept of ship it. We've talked about
00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:42.420
that before, just do it. And so because of that,
00:07:42.730 --> 00:07:45.350
you are able to iterate on the spot. You can't
00:07:45.350 --> 00:07:47.069
always anticipate what's going to happen. And
00:07:47.069 --> 00:07:49.689
so there is that element. And so fear really
00:07:49.689 --> 00:07:52.930
does keep you from almost any action because
00:07:52.930 --> 00:07:56.050
that's often combined with running away or being
00:07:56.050 --> 00:07:59.610
paralyzed. And neither of those two exhibit any
00:07:59.610 --> 00:08:02.589
action that's useful in order to build a business.
00:08:02.850 --> 00:08:05.850
And so fear of failure is a huge one. The concept
00:08:05.850 --> 00:08:08.189
of failing forward and learning from your mistakes
00:08:08.189 --> 00:08:11.310
and executing and iterating on top of your failures
00:08:11.310 --> 00:08:14.550
is action. how you get better and how you get
00:08:14.550 --> 00:08:17.990
better ideas and implement and iterate more and
00:08:17.990 --> 00:08:20.009
so I've seen people that have started multiple
00:08:20.009 --> 00:08:23.370
businesses And when I mean multiple, I mean like
00:08:23.370 --> 00:08:26.069
a lot of businesses and it's almost second nature
00:08:26.069 --> 00:08:28.949
at that point. And they're able to just do it.
00:08:28.990 --> 00:08:31.389
There's minimal stress because they, they're
00:08:31.389 --> 00:08:32.950
like, yeah, I've done this before. This is easy,
00:08:33.049 --> 00:08:36.230
you know? And so fear is something huge that
00:08:36.230 --> 00:08:38.429
holds people back. And then the last one that
00:08:38.429 --> 00:08:41.490
I really, really fixated on, because this dovetails
00:08:41.490 --> 00:08:43.710
with my, I, you know, I call myself a recovering
00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:46.889
perfectionist, is that you are just stuck in
00:08:46.889 --> 00:08:50.190
this eternal preparation, right? And so James
00:08:50.190 --> 00:08:53.029
Clear talks about this in Atomic Habits in the
00:08:53.029 --> 00:08:56.330
book, and that preparing is fine, but if you
00:08:56.330 --> 00:08:59.370
spend too much time preparing, there's a point
00:08:59.370 --> 00:09:01.730
where you just have to start. And so I like to
00:09:01.730 --> 00:09:04.250
really make sure I'm aiming that shot, but if
00:09:04.250 --> 00:09:06.830
you never take the shot, it doesn't matter. And
00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:08.950
there's other people that like to shoot and then
00:09:08.950 --> 00:09:11.289
aim later. And so we always joke about that with
00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:14.289
those personality types. But there is some value
00:09:14.289 --> 00:09:16.769
there in realizing, hey, when someone is sighting
00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:20.399
in a rifle, you have to shoot multiple times
00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.779
because you have to see if you're aiming dead
00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:27.019
on and it's off, then you have to adjust, right?
00:09:27.179 --> 00:09:30.000
You just left, you're like, oh, well, okay. So
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:33.240
that insinuates that you have to iterate. You
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:35.779
have to have execution. You have to have action
00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:39.000
in order to adjust that later shot to get that
00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:41.360
dialed in. And business works exactly the same
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:45.200
way. And so perfectionism. has a good heart behind
00:09:45.200 --> 00:09:48.299
it. However, again, I always say it's in the
00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:50.620
name, it's impossible. And in the same way, you
00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:52.539
can't be perfect, your business can't either.
00:09:52.759 --> 00:09:56.100
And so you just need to get started and get going.
00:09:56.279 --> 00:09:58.600
Yeah, I think, you know, it's one of those things
00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:02.000
where so many people are so capable of more than
00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:04.259
they give themselves credit for, right? Like,
00:10:04.830 --> 00:10:07.090
People have got these crazy hidden talents or
00:10:07.090 --> 00:10:10.750
these crazy ideas and we really are sometimes
00:10:10.750 --> 00:10:13.250
our own worst enemy and talking ourselves out
00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:16.370
of something that could bring so much good to
00:10:16.370 --> 00:10:18.330
the world or you could solve a problem that people
00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:20.529
have. I think it's one of the reasons I love
00:10:20.529 --> 00:10:23.750
honestly like watching clips of Shark Tank. It's
00:10:23.750 --> 00:10:26.090
like these are people who have taken a risk and
00:10:26.090 --> 00:10:30.299
have found some niche something that fills a
00:10:30.299 --> 00:10:32.440
void that meets a need. One of my favorite kitchen
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:35.480
products is straight off a Shark Tank. And so
00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:37.240
it's one of those things that, you know, then
00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.179
once you learn the backstory and you learn about
00:10:39.179 --> 00:10:41.259
people and you learn about what made them do,
00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:44.639
decide to create this crazy brand, right? So
00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.860
many of them saw a need, filled a niche, and
00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:51.799
probably have created this product multiple times
00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:53.639
over until the iteration that they pitched on
00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:55.559
Shark Tank, right? Like they tried it and this
00:10:55.559 --> 00:10:57.259
part failed and they kept trying and this part
00:10:57.259 --> 00:11:00.330
failed. Every good break, starts as a series
00:11:00.330 --> 00:11:04.149
of failures. And you think about every big company,
00:11:04.330 --> 00:11:07.590
everybody that started in a garage or a basement,
00:11:07.730 --> 00:11:12.009
right, took that risk and took their shot and
00:11:12.009 --> 00:11:15.509
decided to just somewhat jump in with two feet.
00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.000
Now, you don't always have to do that, but there's
00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.600
a reason that that works and that you have to
00:11:20.600 --> 00:11:23.399
learn to be comfortable with that failure. And
00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:25.279
I think that's a muscle that you and I really
00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:28.179
over the last six or seven years have really
00:11:28.179 --> 00:11:31.220
worked on exercising and going, okay, like it's
00:11:31.220 --> 00:11:32.980
going to be okay. And we're going to choose to
00:11:32.980 --> 00:11:34.820
learn from it. And we're not, we're not going
00:11:34.820 --> 00:11:37.700
to make stupid decisions that put us in our family
00:11:37.700 --> 00:11:42.019
in a risk, right? But we're going to maybe. take
00:11:42.019 --> 00:11:44.120
more of a risk than our 20 -year -old selves
00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:45.919
would have because we've learned to flex that
00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:48.840
muscle. I totally agree. That is definitely true.
00:11:49.039 --> 00:11:51.860
We've made calculated decisions, but there have
00:11:51.860 --> 00:11:54.320
been times like in the car rental business, there
00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:56.519
were cars that I thought would be amazing to
00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:58.679
have and would rent well, and they just didn't.
00:11:58.679 --> 00:12:01.779
And so I had to make, like, hey, this car's not
00:12:01.779 --> 00:12:04.159
it. Sell it. Let's get something else. And so
00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:06.299
we did that multiple times. There were amazing
00:12:06.299 --> 00:12:08.940
cars that we had. We had an Audi R8 Spyder at
00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:12.320
one point. amazing car rented once, you know,
00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.320
maybe twice at a Toyota Supra, a brand new one.
00:12:15.399 --> 00:12:18.340
And it rented also like two or three times in
00:12:18.340 --> 00:12:21.779
a period of over a year. So amazing car, go -kart
00:12:21.779 --> 00:12:24.720
feel great looks. Yeah. It's a BMW. I get it,
00:12:24.740 --> 00:12:27.879
but super quick and really fun to drive. Nobody
00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:30.120
ever rented it. And so it was one of those things.
00:12:30.179 --> 00:12:31.460
It was like, man, I could have sworn this would
00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:34.120
have been a good hit and it just wasn't. So you
00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:35.559
can do all those things. You can beat yourself
00:12:35.559 --> 00:12:37.860
up and maybe you lose some money, but you have
00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:40.389
to really recognize how. you don't do that, not
00:12:40.389 --> 00:12:42.429
beating yourself up, moving forward, learning
00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:45.409
the lesson and maybe making an even better choice
00:12:45.409 --> 00:12:48.350
because of that other one in the future. So these
00:12:48.350 --> 00:12:51.889
are huge, huge things to overcome. But if you
00:12:51.889 --> 00:12:54.110
can, that means you can get started and start
00:12:54.110 --> 00:12:56.730
to actually. do some work. Now, people ask all
00:12:56.730 --> 00:12:59.669
the time, how do you do it? And some main questions
00:12:59.669 --> 00:13:02.070
that I would love for people to really exercise
00:13:02.070 --> 00:13:04.669
and think through that you can do a brainstorming
00:13:04.669 --> 00:13:06.289
session by yourself. You can have a conversation
00:13:06.289 --> 00:13:08.370
with AI about it, of course. And those are things
00:13:08.370 --> 00:13:11.690
like, what is your passion? What are you good
00:13:11.690 --> 00:13:13.730
at? And what do you love to do? Those things
00:13:13.730 --> 00:13:16.529
are important because sometimes they'll factor
00:13:16.529 --> 00:13:20.320
into an idea. to a business thought some sort
00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:22.539
of service and fit into some sort of passion
00:13:22.539 --> 00:13:25.000
that you would love to do love to offer the world
00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:26.899
and so i'm like you said people aren't shark
00:13:26.899 --> 00:13:29.669
tank there's other things like you know, America's
00:13:29.669 --> 00:13:31.610
Got Talent and American Idol, where people have
00:13:31.610 --> 00:13:34.070
actual talents that they've never shown anyone,
00:13:34.250 --> 00:13:36.470
and it's just super cool to see. So that's a
00:13:36.470 --> 00:13:38.570
good question for people to ask, like, what do
00:13:38.570 --> 00:13:40.389
you love to do? What's your passion? What are
00:13:40.389 --> 00:13:43.409
you good at? Those really get to the heart of
00:13:43.409 --> 00:13:45.450
some of the things that you as an individual
00:13:45.450 --> 00:13:48.570
can offer that can be pretty massive in a business.
00:13:48.929 --> 00:13:51.429
And then there's common vehicles of business
00:13:51.429 --> 00:13:53.669
that, you know, whether that be, you know, maybe
00:13:53.669 --> 00:13:56.610
you're really savvy with numbers and investments,
00:13:56.649 --> 00:13:58.429
and that's something that you're like, interested
00:13:58.429 --> 00:14:02.309
in and really kind of nerdy about. And it wouldn't
00:14:02.309 --> 00:14:05.169
take a ton of effort for you to get like really
00:14:05.169 --> 00:14:07.750
good at executing those things for you and your
00:14:07.750 --> 00:14:10.850
family. There's obviously a massive vehicle of
00:14:10.850 --> 00:14:13.970
real estate. The barrier of entry is really high
00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:16.769
and from the looks of it, not changing, likely
00:14:16.769 --> 00:14:19.009
getting worse. And so there's people who want
00:14:19.009 --> 00:14:21.100
to get into real estate, but just. don't feel
00:14:21.100 --> 00:14:23.279
like they can. There's some clever ways that
00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.259
you can do that. I mean, just one Google search
00:14:25.259 --> 00:14:27.059
will reveal multiple techniques that you can
00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:29.159
do to get into real estate, but that is a very
00:14:29.159 --> 00:14:32.039
common, very popular way offering some sort of
00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:34.500
service to people. Like if there's a service
00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:36.379
that you think you can provide your town and
00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:38.700
there's not a lot of competition. That could
00:14:38.700 --> 00:14:40.860
be something very, very good if you have an idea
00:14:40.860 --> 00:14:43.019
for a product. And in this day and age, this
00:14:43.019 --> 00:14:45.899
isn't just a physical product. There's tons of
00:14:45.899 --> 00:14:48.620
people building things with AI, you know, with
00:14:48.620 --> 00:14:51.419
cloud code. You can do that in in lovable or
00:14:51.419 --> 00:14:53.980
any of those vibe coding apps. And you can build
00:14:53.980 --> 00:14:57.120
some really interesting things. A lot of my semi
00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.620
tech friends have built things initially to solve
00:15:00.620 --> 00:15:03.120
annoyances and problems in their own life. So
00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.679
they're like, I'm only building this for me.
00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:07.419
And then people are like, hey, what? Like, can
00:15:07.419 --> 00:15:10.190
I? I use that. And some interesting apps have
00:15:10.190 --> 00:15:13.529
come out of people just building stuff that they
00:15:13.529 --> 00:15:16.529
wanted to fix some solution for their own life.
00:15:16.610 --> 00:15:19.450
And then other people ended up just wanting it.
00:15:19.490 --> 00:15:21.309
It's the same thing for a physical product. So
00:15:21.309 --> 00:15:23.210
if there's something that you think that you
00:15:23.210 --> 00:15:25.649
could do, that is a huge way to do it. And then
00:15:25.649 --> 00:15:28.269
just businesses with offerings that solve problems
00:15:28.269 --> 00:15:30.789
for people. If you follow entrepreneurs that
00:15:30.789 --> 00:15:32.690
are highly successful, they'll tell you that
00:15:32.690 --> 00:15:35.889
honestly, just solving a major problem for a
00:15:35.889 --> 00:15:38.940
large number of people, is a huge way to have
00:15:38.940 --> 00:15:42.399
a successful business. And so that's a massive,
00:15:42.460 --> 00:15:45.139
massive thing that you can do. And then the last
00:15:45.139 --> 00:15:47.940
thing that I want you to weigh is asking yourself
00:15:47.940 --> 00:15:51.820
about you and your role. So for some people,
00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.980
they'll end up being the bottleneck to that business,
00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.960
either because they're the one with the skill
00:15:58.490 --> 00:16:01.289
And that skill doesn't scale unless they can
00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:04.190
multiply that skill to somebody else. And so
00:16:04.190 --> 00:16:07.149
think of things like trade, like repair or the
00:16:07.149 --> 00:16:09.250
tactile trades where you do things with your
00:16:09.250 --> 00:16:11.750
hands. If you're the only one that's doing it
00:16:11.750 --> 00:16:14.250
and it's difficult to teach, this is going to
00:16:14.250 --> 00:16:17.210
be a business that could be limiting as far as
00:16:17.210 --> 00:16:19.690
scale and growth. If growth and scale are not
00:16:19.690 --> 00:16:21.649
something you're super passionate about, you're
00:16:21.649 --> 00:16:23.659
like, no, I just want to do this. That's totally
00:16:23.659 --> 00:16:25.299
fine. But you need to have that on your radar
00:16:25.299 --> 00:16:28.519
to know ahead of time that I have some friends,
00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:30.879
even with flourishing businesses, they feel like
00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.779
they're stuck. And that's the other piece that
00:16:33.779 --> 00:16:36.179
business owners can get stuck in that role where
00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:39.220
they're still the pivotal person where the business.
00:16:39.710 --> 00:16:42.090
can't run without them being there. So they're
00:16:42.090 --> 00:16:44.450
stuck working in the business, not on the business.
00:16:44.710 --> 00:16:46.929
And so even if you do get people that you can
00:16:46.929 --> 00:16:49.909
teach those skills to, or it's actually not dependent
00:16:49.909 --> 00:16:52.029
on a skill of yours, but it's still dependent
00:16:52.029 --> 00:16:56.049
to run with and around you, then that is another
00:16:56.049 --> 00:16:58.149
scale problem that you need to think through
00:16:58.149 --> 00:17:01.090
of how can you teach others to help you run it?
00:17:01.129 --> 00:17:03.269
How can you teach others to have the same skill
00:17:03.269 --> 00:17:06.130
set if that's necessary? And how do you get out
00:17:06.130 --> 00:17:07.809
from being stuck in your business? Those are
00:17:07.809 --> 00:17:10.269
huge things that business coaches and mentors
00:17:10.269 --> 00:17:12.470
teach about all the time because this is a very,
00:17:12.490 --> 00:17:14.490
very common thing that people get stuck in. And
00:17:14.490 --> 00:17:17.369
so this leads me to the fact that there's so
00:17:17.369 --> 00:17:21.309
many different ways to do this and so many different
00:17:21.309 --> 00:17:24.670
people types to execute. And so what I mean by
00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:27.470
that is, is there's a spectrum of different people
00:17:27.470 --> 00:17:30.769
where you can still be an effective person in
00:17:30.769 --> 00:17:34.019
business and highly successful. and be very conservative.
00:17:34.279 --> 00:17:36.980
Whereas on the other side of that spectrum, you
00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:39.900
can be extremely aggressive, leverage aggressively,
00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:43.799
and also scale quickly. And so there are countless
00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.380
examples on both sides. Probably the most famous
00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:48.859
on the conservative side is Dave Ramsey. And
00:17:48.859 --> 00:17:52.880
he is very, very conservative, and he's consistent
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:55.900
with those techniques. And I have a personal
00:17:55.900 --> 00:18:00.329
friend who has been, who has... who has used
00:18:00.329 --> 00:18:03.569
a lot of his principles to pay off his house.
00:18:03.670 --> 00:18:05.650
And he has a rental house that's been paid off
00:18:05.650 --> 00:18:09.009
for several years. And in so doing has been saving
00:18:09.009 --> 00:18:12.329
for his second rental house to either do very
00:18:12.329 --> 00:18:15.589
short -term financing or pay in cash. And then
00:18:15.589 --> 00:18:17.630
he's like, I just want to snowball. And then
00:18:17.630 --> 00:18:20.349
his goal is in five years, I want to have five
00:18:20.349 --> 00:18:23.609
rental houses all paid off. And so, and then
00:18:23.609 --> 00:18:26.049
just snowball that into getting a sixth. And
00:18:26.049 --> 00:18:29.109
so obviously at some point that momentum. is
00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:32.309
going to propel him into being able to have a
00:18:32.309 --> 00:18:35.549
sizable portfolio with all the equity out there
00:18:35.549 --> 00:18:39.589
and the ability to use that rent to do whatever,
00:18:39.789 --> 00:18:43.589
retire or keep buying. And so that's crazy, but
00:18:43.589 --> 00:18:46.630
it is the slow play for sure, right? So it takes
00:18:46.630 --> 00:18:49.589
multiple years, decades to do things that...
00:18:50.059 --> 00:18:53.819
People are impatient. That's why get rich, quit
00:18:53.819 --> 00:18:56.200
schemes are so schemey, right? Because they're
00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.319
like, well, what if I just win the lottery? That'd
00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:00.700
be so much easier. So by that, there goes the
00:19:00.700 --> 00:19:04.460
ability to get more aggressive and to use leverage
00:19:04.460 --> 00:19:06.819
to... Because there are some people that I know
00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:10.759
that would be like, if I had a... asset that
00:19:10.759 --> 00:19:12.579
was completely paid off, I would immediately
00:19:12.579 --> 00:19:14.779
leverage it and use that as a down payment for
00:19:14.779 --> 00:19:17.140
three more properties, right? And there's people
00:19:17.140 --> 00:19:18.799
already that are listening to this and like,
00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:20.640
yeah, dude, that's like, that's exactly what
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.680
I would do. Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong
00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:24.279
with that as long as you don't over leverage
00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:26.359
yourself and you stay responsible. And there's
00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:29.640
financial advisors and mentors and even bankers
00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:31.900
that can help you do that in a way that where
00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:33.960
you're not putting yourself in compromised positions.
00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:36.720
And then you can grow that equity and grow your
00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:38.900
portfolio or your business that way. Obviously,
00:19:38.900 --> 00:19:40.940
the more aggressive you are, the more risky it
00:19:40.940 --> 00:19:44.279
is. If things go sideways, then you might have
00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:45.740
to be stuck in a situation where you have to
00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:47.960
liquidate quickly. That's never good for getting
00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:50.599
a great price. And so you need to make sure that
00:19:50.599 --> 00:19:52.259
you have good connections and good partners.
00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:55.140
That has mattered for us. It's easy to look at
00:19:55.140 --> 00:19:58.140
a bank and... be immediately negative. But there
00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:01.140
is a huge difference between a good bank partnership
00:20:01.140 --> 00:20:04.579
and one that is just a stiff -necked bank where
00:20:04.579 --> 00:20:06.940
you don't have any people that you know and trust
00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:09.559
in that organization to help you. And so that's
00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:12.220
super important to know where your comfort level
00:20:12.220 --> 00:20:15.450
is. with those kinds of things. If you are going
00:20:15.450 --> 00:20:18.309
outside your comfort zone in that area, then
00:20:18.309 --> 00:20:20.910
you can really sacrifice a tremendous amount
00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:24.089
of peace, which in my opinion, isn't worth it
00:20:24.089 --> 00:20:26.230
if you're going against that. People say, well,
00:20:26.329 --> 00:20:27.990
you only grow when you're uncomfortable. I get
00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.450
that, that kind of philosophy of like getting
00:20:30.450 --> 00:20:33.470
out of your comfort zone. Sure. In this specific
00:20:33.470 --> 00:20:36.529
regard, talking about debt and leveraging and
00:20:36.529 --> 00:20:38.450
being aggressive in that route, I think it's
00:20:38.450 --> 00:20:42.329
important to do some. internal review and understand
00:20:42.329 --> 00:20:45.410
what you're comfortable with. And the friend
00:20:45.410 --> 00:20:47.410
that I mentioned earlier that was doing it in
00:20:47.410 --> 00:20:49.609
this snowball method, he's about to buy his second
00:20:49.609 --> 00:20:52.809
one and he's got a good goal, that five goal.
00:20:52.950 --> 00:20:55.269
And the math makes sense. He's going to achieve
00:20:55.269 --> 00:20:58.430
it and he's going to be 100 % at peace with it
00:20:58.430 --> 00:21:00.309
and never stress about it. And he's going to
00:21:00.309 --> 00:21:03.490
retain ultimate flexibility. If the worst happens
00:21:03.490 --> 00:21:06.869
in every horrible scenario, it doesn't matter.
00:21:06.970 --> 00:21:09.150
He's good to go. He owned that first rental house
00:21:09.150 --> 00:21:12.069
during COVID and it didn't matter because it
00:21:12.069 --> 00:21:14.630
was paid off. So even if the renter stopped paying
00:21:14.630 --> 00:21:16.589
rent, because there's a lot of people that couldn't
00:21:16.589 --> 00:21:19.009
afford rent during the shutdowns, he's like,
00:21:19.029 --> 00:21:20.750
it wasn't a big deal because I didn't know the
00:21:20.750 --> 00:21:22.750
bank anything. So we're just chilling, waiting.
00:21:23.180 --> 00:21:26.299
And so that's just something that is very personal
00:21:26.299 --> 00:21:28.000
to you. A lot of people have strong opinions
00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.119
about it and can really sour your pudding if
00:21:31.119 --> 00:21:33.700
they're giving unsolicited advice. But just keep
00:21:33.700 --> 00:21:35.980
in mind, this is something that you need to explore
00:21:35.980 --> 00:21:38.619
for yourself. It can change too. I'm wired way
00:21:38.619 --> 00:21:41.000
more conservatively than a lot of people. And
00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:43.160
so initially, I had to work through some of that
00:21:43.160 --> 00:21:45.460
in that. And that leads me to the last piece
00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:48.319
that dovetails with this as far as doing it alone
00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:51.670
or having a partner. And so my business partner
00:21:51.670 --> 00:21:55.529
is much more aggressive than I am as far as risk
00:21:55.529 --> 00:21:58.430
aversion, does not have much risk aversion. And
00:21:58.430 --> 00:22:01.630
so for me, actually, that's a really good yin
00:22:01.630 --> 00:22:04.470
and yang scenario because we can really work
00:22:04.470 --> 00:22:08.210
through opportunities in a very holistic way,
00:22:08.309 --> 00:22:10.710
I believe, and seeing multiple dimensions of
00:22:10.710 --> 00:22:13.670
any particular opportunity. And that's been a
00:22:13.670 --> 00:22:17.009
really, really good combination. And also, We
00:22:17.009 --> 00:22:18.890
can talk about this more when I have him on the
00:22:18.890 --> 00:22:21.630
show, but there's this dynamic between us that
00:22:21.630 --> 00:22:24.450
he's a visionary and I'm an integrator, which
00:22:24.450 --> 00:22:27.049
is to borrow some of Gino Wickman's verbiage
00:22:27.049 --> 00:22:29.930
out of traction in how we both look at business
00:22:29.930 --> 00:22:32.529
differently. And again, that also helps us execute
00:22:32.529 --> 00:22:35.109
on another level where it has a multiplicative
00:22:35.109 --> 00:22:38.210
effect where one plus one is not equal to, it's
00:22:38.210 --> 00:22:40.470
actually much, much more. And this is something
00:22:40.470 --> 00:22:42.490
that, again, is also a very personal decision
00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:46.410
to bring in a partner because when I... went
00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:49.210
into my first business and brought on a partner.
00:22:49.609 --> 00:22:52.690
This was something I sought advice from several
00:22:52.690 --> 00:22:55.930
people. And one businessman that I greatly respect
00:22:55.930 --> 00:22:58.690
told me he's not a fan of partnerships. And he
00:22:58.690 --> 00:23:01.910
said, partnerships work until they don't. Investors
00:23:01.910 --> 00:23:03.589
are one thing, but I don't think I'll ever do
00:23:03.589 --> 00:23:06.210
it. And I went against his advice, obviously,
00:23:06.250 --> 00:23:09.430
spoiler. And the way I viewed it, this was personal.
00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:12.269
I viewed it like. In the same way that you can
00:23:12.269 --> 00:23:14.750
look at marriage metrics and say, well, half
00:23:14.750 --> 00:23:17.430
of people get divorced, so why get married? I
00:23:17.430 --> 00:23:19.529
think you can look at it that way. I don't think
00:23:19.529 --> 00:23:21.190
that's, I mean, I'm married and I think it's
00:23:21.190 --> 00:23:23.549
worth it. And I think other people, if you find
00:23:23.549 --> 00:23:25.109
people with healthy marriages, they'll be like,
00:23:25.190 --> 00:23:27.880
yeah, no, I don't regret it one bit. Well, if
00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:29.960
you go into it looking at the statistics, you
00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:31.880
might think, you know, I mean, it's a 50 -50
00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.819
shot. It'll be awesome or horrible. I think your
00:23:34.819 --> 00:23:37.559
role has something to do with that as well as
00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:39.660
your partner's. And so we always talk about you
00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:41.200
can only control yourself. You can't control
00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:43.160
other people. The same applies for a marriage.
00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:44.779
And I think also the same thing applies for a
00:23:44.779 --> 00:23:48.319
partnership. Anytime that you go into a partnership,
00:23:48.579 --> 00:23:50.339
there are things that are going to be more difficult.
00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:53.200
There's another person or persons there that
00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:56.140
you have to, it can be clunky. You have to communicate
00:23:56.140 --> 00:23:59.759
like all the very simple, very similar concepts
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:02.339
to a marriage. They have to be intentional and
00:24:02.339 --> 00:24:04.819
those kinds of things we talk about often. And
00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:08.640
so for me, it was worth it not going in it alone,
00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:11.839
like working alongside others that are locked
00:24:11.839 --> 00:24:13.759
arm in arm with you is something that has been
00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:16.359
really fulfilling for me. And so that for me
00:24:16.359 --> 00:24:18.240
has been the answer. But for other people, they're
00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:20.460
like, no, I like being a sole proprietor. I like
00:24:20.460 --> 00:24:23.380
being the single person to make decisions and
00:24:23.380 --> 00:24:25.859
head it forward. But the more you scale and grow,
00:24:26.019 --> 00:24:29.240
sometimes you realize, man, I need variety. I
00:24:29.240 --> 00:24:31.430
need a different. spread of people around me.
00:24:31.470 --> 00:24:33.769
Sometimes that can be employees and it can be
00:24:33.769 --> 00:24:36.549
good, but other times partners and people that
00:24:36.549 --> 00:24:38.490
are level with you can really offer something
00:24:38.490 --> 00:24:40.569
completely different because you don't sign their
00:24:40.569 --> 00:24:42.349
paychecks. It's a little bit different. Yeah,
00:24:42.390 --> 00:24:44.569
I think, you know, that's that's such a personal
00:24:44.569 --> 00:24:47.289
decision. The cool thing is that we all bring
00:24:47.289 --> 00:24:50.490
so many different unique skills and abilities
00:24:50.490 --> 00:24:53.509
to the table. So, you know, if you're if you're
00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:56.529
like, man, I don't know, like maybe like being
00:24:56.529 --> 00:24:58.650
the hype person, being the marketing person,
00:24:58.730 --> 00:25:00.710
like that's not my skill set. Find someone to
00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:02.950
do it with you. You know, there's there is so
00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:06.230
many ways to structure a partnership, a business.
00:25:06.329 --> 00:25:08.990
Get creative with it. Have fun with it. You know,
00:25:08.990 --> 00:25:12.519
use it as a way to invest. in other people to
00:25:12.519 --> 00:25:14.900
bring them alongside you. You never know what
00:25:14.900 --> 00:25:17.559
the reward for that may end up being someday.
00:25:17.799 --> 00:25:21.200
Just like any other relationship in life, it's
00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:24.019
not guaranteed, but learning to work through,
00:25:24.099 --> 00:25:26.720
like you said, the communication and having trust
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:29.299
in each other that you want to make this work
00:25:29.299 --> 00:25:32.920
is, I think, worth the risk. Money does do weird
00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:35.960
things to people. And so if it gets super successful,
00:25:36.180 --> 00:25:38.519
you may see a different side of people. But like
00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:40.839
you said, you have to control you and how you
00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:44.460
approach it and to be someone to be in that partnership
00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:46.940
with. And so it's definitely not for everybody
00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:48.779
and it's not for every business that you may
00:25:48.779 --> 00:25:51.099
even own. You know, you never know what that's
00:25:51.099 --> 00:25:52.980
going to look like. Both of those two things
00:25:52.980 --> 00:25:54.400
that you were just talking about definitely are
00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:55.920
something that has to do with personal comfort
00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:59.460
level and something for you to think through,
00:25:59.519 --> 00:26:03.240
to research, to look at different ways. The cool
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:06.269
thing about the capitalist society that we live
00:26:06.269 --> 00:26:08.529
in is there's so many different ways in which
00:26:08.529 --> 00:26:11.470
to accomplish a goal. And so sometimes half of
00:26:11.470 --> 00:26:13.789
the fun is the creativity and the journey to
00:26:13.789 --> 00:26:17.009
get to that goal. And so use it as an opportunity
00:26:17.009 --> 00:26:19.789
to learn, research, learn things online, start
00:26:19.789 --> 00:26:22.910
watching YouTubes of people who are kind of doing
00:26:22.910 --> 00:26:25.349
a similar thing to what you're doing. Start researching
00:26:25.349 --> 00:26:27.990
and learning, even if for some reason you decide
00:26:27.990 --> 00:26:30.779
that that's not the business. You've spent your
00:26:30.779 --> 00:26:33.720
time learning something. You're flexing a muscle.
00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:36.059
You're farther down the road than maybe what
00:26:36.059 --> 00:26:39.559
you were before. And so use it. Don't see it
00:26:39.559 --> 00:26:41.319
as a waste of time. See it as like, oh, cool.
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.420
I learned something new, right? It's all about
00:26:44.420 --> 00:26:46.539
the way in which that you look at it and the
00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:48.299
mindset that you view it through. And so I think
00:26:48.299 --> 00:26:51.059
this just really fits into, you know, so much
00:26:51.059 --> 00:26:52.319
of the things that we've been talking about,
00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:54.500
about optimizing our lives. You know, this topic
00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:56.619
actually came up because I had one of the young
00:26:56.619 --> 00:26:58.579
ladies that works with us just ask like, hey,
00:26:58.660 --> 00:27:01.119
what else do you do? And how do I get into that?
00:27:01.220 --> 00:27:03.119
And she's super interested in that. And so she's
00:27:03.119 --> 00:27:05.220
just like starting to think and figure it out
00:27:05.220 --> 00:27:07.440
and ask questions. And so I think that's the
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:09.539
best way for that to start. You know, some people
00:27:09.539 --> 00:27:12.740
do a side hustle or do whatever because it's
00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:15.380
It's a way to have fun and a passion and eventually
00:27:15.380 --> 00:27:17.539
take over their W -2 job. Some people, it's a
00:27:17.539 --> 00:27:21.000
way to save on their taxes. Sometimes it's that
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.079
they have this thing happen in their lives and
00:27:23.079 --> 00:27:25.799
they have to figure out how to meet this void
00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:28.140
or maybe there's something that happens and you
00:27:28.140 --> 00:27:31.440
have to create this product to fill and meet
00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:33.279
a need in your own life. And you're like, oh
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:36.140
man, what if other people also wanted to think
00:27:36.140 --> 00:27:38.079
that this was really cool? And we live in a day
00:27:38.079 --> 00:27:40.140
and age where you can do your own marketing.
00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:43.039
It's so free and it's so easy. And there's so
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:45.660
many resources, more resources available to you
00:27:45.660 --> 00:27:50.000
to start a business than any other time in history.
00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:52.779
And so if that's something that you're interested
00:27:52.779 --> 00:27:55.609
in, take the leap. do some research, put together
00:27:55.609 --> 00:27:58.049
a business plan, ask other people who are business
00:27:58.049 --> 00:28:01.109
owners, and then just see what happens. You genuinely
00:28:01.109 --> 00:28:03.690
never know where it may take you. And honestly,
00:28:03.930 --> 00:28:07.009
like that's half the fun is the journey of figuring
00:28:07.009 --> 00:28:09.849
out and heading down that path. Yeah. And I mean,
00:28:09.910 --> 00:28:12.970
I know sometimes people get a little AI fatigued,
00:28:12.970 --> 00:28:16.000
but I mean. This is something that, like I said,
00:28:16.019 --> 00:28:18.019
when I started my first business, AI wasn't a
00:28:18.019 --> 00:28:20.900
thing. And it would have been super helpful to
00:28:20.900 --> 00:28:24.200
have something like AI. I think information aggregation
00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:26.000
is something it really does help with, where
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:28.480
you're like, hey, I'm thinking of like... These
00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:30.279
are my passions. This is what I'm good at. What
00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:32.839
do you think I could do? Or like, this is a good
00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:34.759
business I'm interested in. Can you show me other
00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:37.259
examples of how people have done it? You can
00:28:37.259 --> 00:28:39.319
ask it all sorts of interesting things to get
00:28:39.319 --> 00:28:42.240
forward movement to the things that you're stuck
00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:44.000
in. You know, like, I don't know how I would
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:45.799
do that. Or I don't even know who I would talk
00:28:45.799 --> 00:28:47.640
to or, you know, whatever. And it could be like,
00:28:47.700 --> 00:28:50.180
no, just do this and do that. And I mean, I had
00:28:50.180 --> 00:28:52.279
to figure out all that stuff from the get go.
00:28:52.809 --> 00:28:54.890
just one at a time? Like, you know, how does
00:28:54.890 --> 00:28:56.910
a brand new business that's never done any business
00:28:56.910 --> 00:28:59.009
get a loan for a car? That's a weird question.
00:28:59.130 --> 00:29:01.390
And so it was when I had to humbly walk into
00:29:01.390 --> 00:29:02.970
my bank and be like, hey, this is what I'm looking
00:29:02.970 --> 00:29:04.990
to do. What do you guys think? They were willing
00:29:04.990 --> 00:29:06.329
to give me a chance. They're like, I mean, it.
00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:08.220
And it was pretty low risk for them. They're
00:29:08.220 --> 00:29:10.380
like, oh, this is a, I mean, we would loan you
00:29:10.380 --> 00:29:12.500
the individual. It's a car loan. They weren't,
00:29:12.500 --> 00:29:14.460
it wasn't that scary to them. So there's other
00:29:14.460 --> 00:29:16.720
things that you could ask AI and get answers
00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:18.900
to your questions to again, to get forward movement
00:29:18.900 --> 00:29:21.259
to your thoughts, to the things that are swimming
00:29:21.259 --> 00:29:23.900
up in your head that never quite make it to action.
00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:25.599
So I hope some of that information was helpful.
00:29:25.779 --> 00:29:27.380
If there's some things swimming around your head
00:29:27.380 --> 00:29:29.519
that you're thinking of doing, like what is holding
00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:32.240
you back? What is stopping you from taking action?
00:29:32.359 --> 00:29:34.279
And start asking yourself, what are the things
00:29:34.279 --> 00:29:36.259
that you're passionate about that? you think
00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:38.460
that you can offer the world? Are there any ideas
00:29:38.460 --> 00:29:40.920
or products that you think that you could be
00:29:40.920 --> 00:29:43.720
a facilitator for to help? These things are really
00:29:43.720 --> 00:29:46.240
awesome questions to ask. And what approaches
00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:48.680
could you take? What is going to be your technique?
00:29:48.960 --> 00:29:51.319
These are good things to know in order to kind
00:29:51.319 --> 00:29:53.759
of assess kind of the paths that you could potentially
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:56.920
take on some ideas that you might have in order
00:29:56.920 --> 00:29:59.539
to execute an awesome business potentially. Thanks
00:29:59.539 --> 00:30:01.279
for listening to the Optimizing Beyond podcast.
00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:03.519
Remember, growth happens when you take action.
00:30:03.660 --> 00:30:05.880
So subscribe, share this with a friend, and most
00:30:05.880 --> 00:30:07.859
importantly, put what you learned into practice
00:30:07.859 --> 00:30:11.720
because we know that daily anything changes everything.
