Mike DeJong: There's no such thing as completely passive income, I just felt a little bit locked in. It was in my head. It wasn't in reality. I could have done this a lot sooner. with the release of those businesses, I kind of was able to release myself to the road. It was like a mental unlock.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hello there, everyone. This is Jamar Cobb-Denard, and this is the podcast, What's It Worth? a business podcast about buying and selling companies. Today, we have a very special guest with us, Mike De Jong, and he's got an incredible story to share about how he's had four exits, owned multiple franchises throughout the years, and also helps companies escape the operator trap. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today.
Mike DeJong: Mr. Mar, a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Sure thing. So I'll let you tell your own story, but I do want to hit some other high points. You're an author, which is an incredible feat for anybody who's even considered writing a book. That's big, big deal. And the other really cool thing that you're doing is that you said you're a digital nomad originally, Wisconsin native, but you've got you and your wife Olga that are hitting the streets and. Every four to eight weeks you're moving around chasing sunshine, right now you're in Galveston, Texas. Is that right?
Mike DeJong: That is 100 % accurate. Yeah, we spent most of the winter in Florida and now over in Texas and we're heading to Colorado I think next. So no fixed address any longer. It's kind of weird, but a
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm
Mike DeJong: lot of fun.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow, how long you've been doing that?
Mike DeJong: since December of 25, so this pretty new at it. But it's been a dream for
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: most of a decade since I got into business for myself to have that freedom to be able to travel.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: December 25th. So, four or five months.
Mike DeJong: Yeah. Yep.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So, what's it, I'm totally off track here because this is fascinating.
Mike DeJong: Hahaha.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: But what has it been like working and traveling and spending kind of leisure time? What has that been like for you guys?
Mike DeJong: So where to even start? First of all, the working part's actually been easier than I thought it would be. After the first few days of settling in, figuring out where the grocery store is and where to park the car, that sort of thing, because every place is a little bit new and unique. I figured out how to find a home for my laptop, my camera, my microphone, all that fits into one little computer bag, and that's been pretty easy. And then the rest of it, it's actually gotten easier and easier with every move. Every move I'm leaving more and more stuff behind. I'm like, I haven't used this in a month. I haven't used this in three months. this is the fourth move and I still don't need this thing. Let's just, just shedding that the weight. was, it's been just like amazing actually.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So what led you guys to decide to do this? I mean, this is a dream for a lot of people. Before I ask this big question, I have small question. So you mentioned the car. Do you guys have an RV, some sort of converted van? What are you riding in?
Mike DeJong: A mid-sized SUV.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay, and then where do you guys usually step?
Mike DeJong: We'll stay in an Airbnb or we'll reach out to Olga's really good at this. She'll find an area that she wants to go to and she'll hunt down a neighborhood or a group on Facebook. And because everyone seems to have their neighborhood Facebook group. then does anyone have anything for rent? Is anyone leaving for a month or two and negotiate a great deal for us? But when she can't, we just go to Airbnb or VRBO or booking.com or Expedia or one of those. and find something.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: And you guys have no, you said no fits the dress, so sold your homes, sold all the big stuff, and
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: now all of your cash in some regard is going towards your lifestyle on the road.
Mike DeJong: Right, right, but I also don't have to mow the lawn anymore, shovel the snow, I don't have to worry if the roof leaks. All that's someone else's responsibility and there is, you know, an expense to that whether it's money or time and I'm just not spending the time on that anymore which is liberating. So I actually have a little bit more free time than I did when I was at a fixed address.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Right, Well, so how did you, the question that I need to bounce back to here is, you know, what led to you guys finally pulling the trigger on this dream of yours?
Mike DeJong: For me, it was the last exit that I had in my franchises I had in the Wisconsin area. They were my last tie to Wisconsin. And at the time, I'd actually been living in Virginia for a couple of years, but the businesses were still in Wisconsin. So I still had this pull to go there and a certain amount of work. There's no such thing as completely passive income, in my opinion. So I still had some amount of responsibility daily to those places. And I just felt a little bit locked in. It was in my head. It wasn't in reality. I could have done this a lot sooner. But with the release of those businesses, I kind of was able to release myself to the road. It was like a mental unlock. And then it was some period of time to convince Olga that it was time to try this. And it's just every month is an experiment. Like it could end. We could go buy a place. next week. It could end if we're not happy, but right now it's been going great, so we keep doing it.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Good. And that's a really great thought, that it could end at any point for you guys if you choose.
Mike DeJong: That's right.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: What were some of the keys that got Olga off the fence to do this?
Mike DeJong: Olga's big on certainty. I've heard the six human needs described as certainty, variety, significance, love or connection, depends which one you want to go after, and then growth and contribution. And we all have a driving need, like our number one and maybe a close number two need. And hers was certainty. I'm like, all right, how could I give her the certainty she needs and still not have this fixed address. And it started with keeping an apartment in the area where we left in Virginia so she could still have this like anchor. Even though we're not there and we don't use it, it's still an anchor and we're ready to give that up now too because it's just not being used. But then some other stuff like, for me, I would have went somewhere every single week.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: But she's like, no, need to learn a place. So that was that month to two month trade off, staying
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hmm.
Mike DeJong: in a place. And actually she was right. You really can't get a pulse for a place in a week, but in a month or two, you really start to get a feel for it. And it's interesting. We picked Galveston because my daughter's going to grad school here. You don't see your kids that much when they're in their 20s. So I'm like, I'm going to drop in for a month and maybe I'll see you for dinner once a week, which is about as much as I see her, which is great because otherwise I was seeing her
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: every four to six months.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: But I know more about this place than she does. And she's been here a couple of years because I
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: have a different point of view for what I'm looking at. So that was another piece for giving her that certainty that she needed and then getting her comfortable with working. So we took some longer trips. where she could work remotely and instead of having to be at her home, and she worked from home. It's not like she went into a building every day, but you get comfortable working in your space. And she got very comfortable with working remotely on those trips. So it was just then, okay, now we could pull the trigger and try this. Let's try it for the winter. And then we just keep tacking
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: on a month and a month. And now we're planning out through all this year. Again, it's an experiment. could change at any minute, but that's where we're at as of today.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: It's incredible. So there was a, I just got back from Belize and I saw somebody living a version of my best life that I had been really not dreaming hard on for the last 10, 15 years, but has been in the back of my mind. And that's to own an island and stay there full
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: time. And I'd
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: never heard of anybody really doing that in terms of their own island. And when we were in Belize, we went to a place called Hideaway Key. And it's just a family there in their 40s. They have a 13, 14 year old daughter that they homeschool there. And it is their island that they bought in 2003, I believe it is. They
Mike DeJong: wow.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: built their buildings. They boat, they fish, they do boating and fishing competitions. Their daughter, does art and meets people from all around the world from some of the boats that come in
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: and they'll fix a prefixed menu dinner for people that have their small boats that come in and get to meet people from all over the world. I mean it's like, this is incredible. Like who has the
Mike DeJong: That's amazing.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: guts to do the kind of thing that they're doing and that you're doing? Like that's just, that's off the charts amazing.
Mike DeJong: It's taking the first step. And if you want your own island, I cannot remember the name of the website, but there is one. It's like islandsforsale.com or something like that. And there's thousands of them on there. I do look periodically.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We wouldn't believe. think it's the country with the most islands in the world. I believe it's 60,000 islands that are around certain countries.
Mike DeJong: Goodness.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: There are 600 islands around Belize in particular, and I visited 10 or 12 over the course of a week. So there are so many islands out there. mean, some of them are just little plots of sand,
Mike DeJong: Sure.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: but others, I mean, you put generators and solar, some wind, some water power and
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: shelter out there and you're good.
Mike DeJong: Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. And how remote you want to be. You could be in the absolute middle of the Pacific where it's going to be a four day boat ride to get to the nearest next land, or you could be off the coast of Belize or off the coast of the US or Canada or, well,
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: Bahamas, guess, is technically off the coast of the US, right? There's lots of islands there for sale, it's all
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: the level you want. And now with Starlink, I mean, where you could be connected to the world.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So there's two things that I heard in your story, two kind of big overarching things. One is understand what your needs are for certainty, variety, significance, love, growth, and contribution when you're thinking about making big changes for yourself. The other thing I've been thinking about in the background of my head as you're telling your story is really about the transition after selling a business. That becomes such an issue for my clients as a business broker, I'll ask them what are going to do next? And they're leaving my office with one to three million bucks. And they're saying, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know where I'm going to go. I don't know what I'm going to do with the money. And so I say, talk
Mike DeJong: Wow.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: to your estate planner, talk to a wealth planner. Here's a couple of other coaches that you could talk to, right, to try to figure this out, do some journaling. But that transition piece seems to be an emotional struggle that I don't necessarily get into or don't help people process through after they transition, but I know it's coming. And three things I heard that could be important to that transition. One, Practice the transition. So like you guys said, that you did some smaller trips and kind of practiced what it would be like before you went out full time. Second, determine what your priorities are, specifically in your conversations with Olga, figuring out what her priorities were and integrating those into the plan. And then third is plan and make that plan over the short and the long term. Is there anything else that somebody should be thinking about when it comes to transition after selling a business?
Mike DeJong: They should be thinking about it sooner.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: I laugh because another thing I've learned over the years is when I get to between 60 and 80 percent of a goal, whatever that goal is, whether it's personal or professional, etc., it's have the next goal.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: But it's never too late. So I think you hit the highlights.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hey there. Thanks for listening to What's It Worth, a business podcast about buying and selling companies. Just remember to like, comment, subscribe, and turn on the alerts to these episodes as they come out very quickly and very regularly. Also, you can find all the episodes at your favorite places to listen to andor watch podcasts on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube. Thanks for listening.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hello there, everyone. This is Jamar Cobb-Denard, and this is the podcast, What's It Worth? a business podcast about buying and selling companies. Today, we have a very special guest with us, Mike De Jong, and he's got an incredible story to share about how he's had four exits, owned multiple franchises throughout the years, and also helps companies escape the operator trap. Mike, thank you so much for joining us today.
Mike DeJong: Mr. Mar, a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Sure thing. So I'll let you tell your own story, but I do want to hit some other high points. You're an author, which is an incredible feat for anybody who's even considered writing a book. That's big, big deal. And the other really cool thing that you're doing is that you said you're a digital nomad originally, Wisconsin native, but you've got you and your wife Olga that are hitting the streets and. Every four to eight weeks you're moving around chasing sunshine, right now you're in Galveston, Texas. Is that right?
Mike DeJong: That is 100 % accurate. Yeah, we spent most of the winter in Florida and now over in Texas and we're heading to Colorado I think next. So no fixed address any longer. It's kind of weird, but a
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm
Mike DeJong: lot of fun.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow, how long you've been doing that?
Mike DeJong: since December of 25, so this pretty new at it. But it's been a dream for
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: most of a decade since I got into business for myself to have that freedom to be able to travel.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: December 25th. So, four or five months.
Mike DeJong: Yeah. Yep.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So, what's it, I'm totally off track here because this is fascinating.
Mike DeJong: Hahaha.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: But what has it been like working and traveling and spending kind of leisure time? What has that been like for you guys?
Mike DeJong: So where to even start? First of all, the working part's actually been easier than I thought it would be. After the first few days of settling in, figuring out where the grocery store is and where to park the car, that sort of thing, because every place is a little bit new and unique. I figured out how to find a home for my laptop, my camera, my microphone, all that fits into one little computer bag, and that's been pretty easy. And then the rest of it, it's actually gotten easier and easier with every move. Every move I'm leaving more and more stuff behind. I'm like, I haven't used this in a month. I haven't used this in three months. this is the fourth move and I still don't need this thing. Let's just, just shedding that the weight. was, it's been just like amazing actually.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So what led you guys to decide to do this? I mean, this is a dream for a lot of people. Before I ask this big question, I have small question. So you mentioned the car. Do you guys have an RV, some sort of converted van? What are you riding in?
Mike DeJong: A mid-sized SUV.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay, and then where do you guys usually step?
Mike DeJong: We'll stay in an Airbnb or we'll reach out to Olga's really good at this. She'll find an area that she wants to go to and she'll hunt down a neighborhood or a group on Facebook. And because everyone seems to have their neighborhood Facebook group. then does anyone have anything for rent? Is anyone leaving for a month or two and negotiate a great deal for us? But when she can't, we just go to Airbnb or VRBO or booking.com or Expedia or one of those. and find something.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: And you guys have no, you said no fits the dress, so sold your homes, sold all the big stuff, and
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: now all of your cash in some regard is going towards your lifestyle on the road.
Mike DeJong: Right, right, but I also don't have to mow the lawn anymore, shovel the snow, I don't have to worry if the roof leaks. All that's someone else's responsibility and there is, you know, an expense to that whether it's money or time and I'm just not spending the time on that anymore which is liberating. So I actually have a little bit more free time than I did when I was at a fixed address.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Right, Well, so how did you, the question that I need to bounce back to here is, you know, what led to you guys finally pulling the trigger on this dream of yours?
Mike DeJong: For me, it was the last exit that I had in my franchises I had in the Wisconsin area. They were my last tie to Wisconsin. And at the time, I'd actually been living in Virginia for a couple of years, but the businesses were still in Wisconsin. So I still had this pull to go there and a certain amount of work. There's no such thing as completely passive income, in my opinion. So I still had some amount of responsibility daily to those places. And I just felt a little bit locked in. It was in my head. It wasn't in reality. I could have done this a lot sooner. But with the release of those businesses, I kind of was able to release myself to the road. It was like a mental unlock. And then it was some period of time to convince Olga that it was time to try this. And it's just every month is an experiment. Like it could end. We could go buy a place. next week. It could end if we're not happy, but right now it's been going great, so we keep doing it.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Good. And that's a really great thought, that it could end at any point for you guys if you choose.
Mike DeJong: That's right.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: What were some of the keys that got Olga off the fence to do this?
Mike DeJong: Olga's big on certainty. I've heard the six human needs described as certainty, variety, significance, love or connection, depends which one you want to go after, and then growth and contribution. And we all have a driving need, like our number one and maybe a close number two need. And hers was certainty. I'm like, all right, how could I give her the certainty she needs and still not have this fixed address. And it started with keeping an apartment in the area where we left in Virginia so she could still have this like anchor. Even though we're not there and we don't use it, it's still an anchor and we're ready to give that up now too because it's just not being used. But then some other stuff like, for me, I would have went somewhere every single week.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: But she's like, no, need to learn a place. So that was that month to two month trade off, staying
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hmm.
Mike DeJong: in a place. And actually she was right. You really can't get a pulse for a place in a week, but in a month or two, you really start to get a feel for it. And it's interesting. We picked Galveston because my daughter's going to grad school here. You don't see your kids that much when they're in their 20s. So I'm like, I'm going to drop in for a month and maybe I'll see you for dinner once a week, which is about as much as I see her, which is great because otherwise I was seeing her
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: every four to six months.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Okay.
Mike DeJong: But I know more about this place than she does. And she's been here a couple of years because I
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: have a different point of view for what I'm looking at. So that was another piece for giving her that certainty that she needed and then getting her comfortable with working. So we took some longer trips. where she could work remotely and instead of having to be at her home, and she worked from home. It's not like she went into a building every day, but you get comfortable working in your space. And she got very comfortable with working remotely on those trips. So it was just then, okay, now we could pull the trigger and try this. Let's try it for the winter. And then we just keep tacking
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: on a month and a month. And now we're planning out through all this year. Again, it's an experiment. could change at any minute, but that's where we're at as of today.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: It's incredible. So there was a, I just got back from Belize and I saw somebody living a version of my best life that I had been really not dreaming hard on for the last 10, 15 years, but has been in the back of my mind. And that's to own an island and stay there full
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: time. And I'd
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: never heard of anybody really doing that in terms of their own island. And when we were in Belize, we went to a place called Hideaway Key. And it's just a family there in their 40s. They have a 13, 14 year old daughter that they homeschool there. And it is their island that they bought in 2003, I believe it is. They
Mike DeJong: wow.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: built their buildings. They boat, they fish, they do boating and fishing competitions. Their daughter, does art and meets people from all around the world from some of the boats that come in
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: and they'll fix a prefixed menu dinner for people that have their small boats that come in and get to meet people from all over the world. I mean it's like, this is incredible. Like who has the
Mike DeJong: That's amazing.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: guts to do the kind of thing that they're doing and that you're doing? Like that's just, that's off the charts amazing.
Mike DeJong: It's taking the first step. And if you want your own island, I cannot remember the name of the website, but there is one. It's like islandsforsale.com or something like that. And there's thousands of them on there. I do look periodically.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm. Yeah. We wouldn't believe. think it's the country with the most islands in the world. I believe it's 60,000 islands that are around certain countries.
Mike DeJong: Goodness.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: There are 600 islands around Belize in particular, and I visited 10 or 12 over the course of a week. So there are so many islands out there. mean, some of them are just little plots of sand,
Mike DeJong: Sure.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: but others, I mean, you put generators and solar, some wind, some water power and
Mike DeJong: Yeah.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: shelter out there and you're good.
Mike DeJong: Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. And how remote you want to be. You could be in the absolute middle of the Pacific where it's going to be a four day boat ride to get to the nearest next land, or you could be off the coast of Belize or off the coast of the US or Canada or, well,
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: Bahamas, guess, is technically off the coast of the US, right? There's lots of islands there for sale, it's all
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: the level you want. And now with Starlink, I mean, where you could be connected to the world.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Wow. So there's two things that I heard in your story, two kind of big overarching things. One is understand what your needs are for certainty, variety, significance, love, growth, and contribution when you're thinking about making big changes for yourself. The other thing I've been thinking about in the background of my head as you're telling your story is really about the transition after selling a business. That becomes such an issue for my clients as a business broker, I'll ask them what are going to do next? And they're leaving my office with one to three million bucks. And they're saying, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know where I'm going to go. I don't know what I'm going to do with the money. And so I say, talk
Mike DeJong: Wow.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: to your estate planner, talk to a wealth planner. Here's a couple of other coaches that you could talk to, right, to try to figure this out, do some journaling. But that transition piece seems to be an emotional struggle that I don't necessarily get into or don't help people process through after they transition, but I know it's coming. And three things I heard that could be important to that transition. One, Practice the transition. So like you guys said, that you did some smaller trips and kind of practiced what it would be like before you went out full time. Second, determine what your priorities are, specifically in your conversations with Olga, figuring out what her priorities were and integrating those into the plan. And then third is plan and make that plan over the short and the long term. Is there anything else that somebody should be thinking about when it comes to transition after selling a business?
Mike DeJong: They should be thinking about it sooner.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: I laugh because another thing I've learned over the years is when I get to between 60 and 80 percent of a goal, whatever that goal is, whether it's personal or professional, etc., it's have the next goal.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mike DeJong: But it's never too late. So I think you hit the highlights.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard: Hey there. Thanks for listening to What's It Worth, a business podcast about buying and selling companies. Just remember to like, comment, subscribe, and turn on the alerts to these episodes as they come out very quickly and very regularly. Also, you can find all the episodes at your favorite places to listen to andor watch podcasts on Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube. Thanks for listening.
