The Why in You

Make Money On Your Terms - The Entrepreneur Hustle, Be Your Own Boss

What’s up? I'm fired! I mean, I'm fired up because I get to share my message with you and welcome you to my podcast, Make Money on Your Terms - The Entrepreneur Hustle, Be Your Own Boss.

Being able to do what you want each day without having to ask permission is great. And I wanted to thank you for taking a few moments out of your busy day to tune in. I mean, really - why the hell would anyone want to ask for permission from a manager or a boss to get some fresh air and take a break. Listen up. I'm not here to sugarcoat or tell you what feels good to hear. This is a no BS reality kind of show. I'm telling everyone here to wake up! Think like an entrepreneur and be different. I'm going to rant. you're going to be inspired and motivated and fired up and I'm going to talk about a few thinks that folks sigh from, like, you know, money and life in general.

I talk about life as an employee because I consumed years of my life and I share stories from folks all around the globe that make money on their terms and have had the courage to step outside the box and think. It's one thing to think. It's another thing to think different and create a life you want. Most things that get results require action and doing. I hope that doesn't surprise you. If it does, well, there, you have it.

A couple of things upfront. I'm all about having fun, being me, and living the life I want. If you're listening and are one of those who go through your day serious, stop being so serious. It ain't that serious. I mean, seriously have fun, joke a little bit, be goofy. Oh, and smile too. Why don't you try it, literally? Take two seconds right now put the biggest smile on your face like you just won a million bucks. Alright, good.

Now that we've got that accomplished, lets get it. Have you ever been excited about getting fired? Okay, fine. How many of you like me actually got fired and were excited? I'm a fired employee so I have a totally different perspective on this whole life of an employee. I almost took it a step further and say, if you've never been fired, you probably wouldn't 100% understand the frustration that I have. Maybe getting fired should be one of those things on your new year's list. But before you get fired I would encourage you all to have what I call a plan in place. We can prioritize, learn and achieve and do it now. See, you might believe that once you get fired, it's hard to look at jobs to sustain. As an employee, what did I do different? Well, I kind of went in like an entrepreneur and I always looked for ways to be more efficient and also took note of the common errors or complaints and new the things that didn’t work. In a sense, I kind of became my own private investigator in that cubed life.

What's happened to me over the years as an employee? Well, kind of a lot. At age 16, I was kind of a walk in by Kleine-Levin syndrome] - it's a rare sleep disorder that kind of shut off in my life and I had to cope with this, I had to manage life. But guess what, life still happens and continue to go on. [inaudible] would appear, negative things would occur. I think this is something every human being deals with. What I do is became a master at getting back up when shit happen. I don't a while myself to get bogged down to a point of defeat. I will look at the negative things, turn them into positive, get back up and then make story of it. To many, getting knocked down and staying down is what happens. Don't let that be you. Get back up. So my quick story. I started my first job at the age of 16 working at Ponderosa, you know, the food buffet and awesome chicken wings. Anyways, I was the best dishwasher ever. Eventually after having months on the job and having a few food fights and water wars and getting in trouble, I was promoted to cook. Even then, I was having fun.

It's so important to have fun. I can't stress that enough. It's even more fun to have fun and make money. So I challenge you to be great at what you do. I got to a point where managers would try and raise me to see who could clean dishes the fastest. No one manager or employee at my location could ever beat me. You're probably thinkin' dude, why the hell are you bragging about cleaning dishes?

And I'm going to challenge you to stop thinking about what your label or title is because to me it means nothing. Call yourself CEO, call yourself janitor, at the end of the day, you're a human like myself. I remember out of college having a job as a debt collector but we were glorified account managers. People would ask, what do you do? It was kind of like an embarrassment to say, "I collect debt." So they gave us a title as senior account manager. Fancy title, but not so fancy pay unless you hit bonus.

How well do you do what you do? Do you actually give a shit about people? DO you contribute to society? That's what matters to me. I get to things like coming in the package of being an employee. Most of us have to commute to and from work in order to get paid. We're told when we're hungry and then we're told how long we have to eat. Your lunch is from 12-12:30. So hungry or not, you have to take your lunch because if you don't, guess what, you'll probably get in trouble. Oh, and when you're sick, call this number or send an email here and let us know your personal details and why you won't be here. Oh, and by the way, you only get five sick days per year so after that, you won't get paid if you don't come.

Why do you even make people choose between taking care of themselves and earning money is nuts. All these stressors can control you just for taking a job. I'm not saying every job is like that. Don't get me wrong but the majority are and if you don't think so, you're kind of in, lalaland as I call it. Don't get me wrong, jobs have been a phenomenal place for me to learn and to be able to just look inside the eye from an employee and see what's happening. If you're lucky enough to have a leader or manager that is great, I'm going to encourage you to run with it. Unfortunately, though lots of jobs out there are cookie cut. You fit the mold they designed and you stay within it. Otherwise, yeah, that' so secure job you think you have may not be so secure. And once you start to challenge and do different and stick out, you're on the radar. So make sure you know that upfront. Although I was able to outperform many of my peers, I hated being in an environment where the majority were frustrated, miserable, disengaged and just downright negative. It's poison, so be careful how long you stay in a toxic environment because eventually, if you stay long enough, you'll become poisonous.

So here's what stuck with me and holds through as an employee. Every time you go to work, you're building someone else's dream. You're making money for someone else on someone else's terms. My question to you is, why not build your own dream? And there's a whole lot of folks out there with no interest for that whole work for 40 years just to retire with 40% of whatever they say. But yet, they've not made the decision to do different and think outside the box. How many of you would actually have the courage and step outside the comfort zone to be able to create the life you want. From this day forward, consider yourself an architect.

As an architect, you can be a stay at home parent, create financial freedom, work from home and be your own boss, all while living life and making money on your terms. I want you to take a second and think about your dreams. Go back to the ability to be able to dream of what life could look like for you. Think about where you would be. Who would be with you? Think about the memories that would be created. Most importantly, think about the why in you and the why in you is what I created really as a core within. And I say the reason you do what you do is very important. So ask yourself, why do you do what you do? And if your answer is just to make money, to pay bills, to live, to survive, that's ass backwards. Once you can nail the reason you do what you do, everything would change. The decisions you make, your priorities, your desires, actually, take some time to think about the why in you. What is your purpose? Why do you do what you do?

Fast forward to today, it was a little over a year ago, November 2014 that I was fired from making the decision to not be controlled by someone else and be a stay at home dad to be present for my daughter. You see, my choice of being at home with the baby was made before I got fired. The plan was in place before HR called me. I would encourage you to travel the road less, traveled and kind of go with the journey, because for me, being able to say on the phone to HR, do what you need, it was an awesome experience. I knew the sacrifice and commitment I would need to make in order for reality to happen. College didn't teach me how to think different. College didn't teach me how to make money on my terms either. I had to take the initiative, associate with likeminded folks and go out there and get what I wanted.

I started investing in real estate at 24. I had some big mess ups and big errors, but overall the buy and hold strategy has treated me well. After being fired in 2014, I went full time selling on Amazon and we had our very first sale November 3rd, 2014. Prior to that, I have never sold on Amazon. It's been an awesome journey and I made a lot of mistakes and I've also grown a lot in the last years selling on Amazon. Nonetheless, I was able to build a seven figure business in under a year and my wife has left her job as a [inaudble] and has assisted tremendously in the growth of the business as we've got more active selling on Amazon FBA. Why do I mention this to you? because the whole go to school, get good grades just to get a job, yeah, that's old way of thinking. Think about this, most go into debt to get that piece of paper, to go beg for a job just to get by. What kind of sense does that make? Why not break free and make money on your terms. I'll admit, I drink the cool aid too. I tell people though, I went to college to network. Yes, I actually paid my money to go to college to not work and get that piece of paper.

Thinking outside the box is the new school. So, would you rather work smarter or harder?

I came up with The Entrepreneur Hustle - Be Your Own Boss because the hustle of an entrepreneur is real. Real entrepreneurs make it happen and they don't let excuse stop them. They keep moving forward. Saying you're a CEO doesn't mean you make money. Saying you did six figures or seven figures doesn't mean you make money either, I stress this because I feel like there's a myth out there that just because you're a CEO, you're set. The reality is the folks knocking it out the park, I guarantee you, they get on their asses and they weren't lazy. Lazy never made me money. So if you think it's some fly by night get rich thing, yeah, you need to kind of come back to reality and look at what it is that you really want.

Are you ready for the secret? If you want more, you have to do more. If you want to create the life you want, take action and go the road less traveled, it's also less crowded.

Whether you're a stay at home dad like me, a stay at home mom, a military spouse, an employee, a student, or someone looking for a change, there's plenty of opportunities all around you. Whether you want to be a lifestyle entrepreneur, a mom and pop shop, or just make extra money from home or work from home yourself, the internet has opened many doors. Those fears that are holding you back, move past them. I'm going to challenge you to make money your terms from home, on the road, at the beach, hell, even in your sleep.

If I was able to do it, so can you. Have the confidence that you will win and be willing to believe it before you can see it. And remember, the journey from being a 9-5 employee to making a difference helping others and working for yourself only happens once you get started. Don't try to be a know it all and wait for the perfect time, otherwise, a year from now, you'll still be trying to know it all and figure things out. I look forward to seeing you win. I welcome you to Make Money on Your Terms - the podcast where we're going to tell you how it is. See you at the top.