The One Thing Holding You Back From Starting (It's Not What You Think)

You've done all this research. You've watched the testimonials. You've read the reviews. And you still can't pull the trigger. That's not a information problem — that's a faith problem.

In this video, you'll discover:
✅ Why knowing too much is actually what's keeping you stuck
✅ The childlike faith concept that changes how you approach starting anything
✅ The real reason your fear of failure isn't yours — it was handed to you
✅ What Alani ice skating taught us about overthinking and just going for it
✅ Why "what if it doesn't work" is the wrong question to be asking

THE TRUTH: You don't have a research problem. You have a starting problem. And the fix isn't more information — it's less fear.

Register for the FREE Remote Cleaning Masterclass: https://www.cleaningbusinessmasterclass.com/?el=Youtube-clientsfast

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Transcript

Choose Discipline Over Comfort

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you stay in that circle of that don't do, don't do, don't do, then you won't. You gotta make a decision as a person. Like, you can't get more hours in the day. The only way you get more hours is to wake up earlier or stay up later. What's going on, guys? Welcome to another episode of the More Than a Sci Hustle Podcast where we help nine the fathers create more impact, income, and influence outside their jobs. My name is Anthony. And I'm Janoka, and it feels like we haven't been here for a while. Yeah, man. I wanted to do a pod, and I wanted to do literally like listen, if y'all have been with in our world, this is no script, this is no hook, this is no thumbnail. I was like, we just gotta do like you know, like on YouTube where you gotta do the fancy thumbnail and all that. I'm like, listen, I just want to get the energy out there. I just want to pod, man. I think sometimes you fall, you not I'm gonna say fall, but you you see the strategies that other people are doing, and then you feel like you gotta adjust your own. And I was like, I want to be intentional about the YouTube and the growth, and I think it made it harder for us to create podcasts and do sit-downs.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Because so much noise in the world, and I think about that because we talk about that with our students, and we say sometimes when we started Cleaning Business University what six years ago, we're like they didn't like you know, students didn't ask all of this, or they didn't require all of these things, but things are louder now. More information is out there. You're seeing, should I do this? Can I do this? Can you do this? You gotta pick something and go with it. You gotta pick something and stick with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

And you're seeing a lot of creators, they're talking about burnout and they're talking about like, you know, how do I get away from that lifestyle? And I think it's a lot harder to create when you aren't in a space of creation versus doing it. What do you mean? Like for me, like sometimes I can't do a podcast. I'm not in my creative zone or I'm not in my creative juices. And I think the harder you make it, the less likely it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Well, the thing about that is that at one point you could be in creative juices and it'd be okay. The other point that is your creative juices is your job. So it's kind of like you got the juices or not, you gotta come out with it. You gotta, you gotta put it out. Regardless of how you're feeling, you gotta you better make some type of vibe and put it out. So that's the difference when we first started versus now.

Noise Burnout And Creative Discipline

SPEAKER_00 2:17

It comes down to inspiration versus because you're not always gonna be inspired to do it. That's when the dedication discipline comes in, right? So it's not gonna be I'm not inspired to do it, but the discipline shows me I gotta do it time and time again. It's like going to the gym. I don't feel like going to the gym, but I know if I'm 50, 60, 70 years old, it's gonna pay off. I'm gonna look back like those times I should have been going to the gym, I wasn't because I wasn't inspired to do it versus it didn't pay off in five weeks. Five weeks. So what's what's happening what's happening, what's happening in five weeks?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Okay, so there's this is this is the update in life, our true feelings. Okay, where are we right now? In five weeks or four to five weeks, we are going to Panama to celebrate our 10-year anniversary. Yay! Yes, the sound effects in the back. Um yes, we'd have been married for 10 years and we are doing a vow renewal with family and friends. We're talking 50 to 70 people. It is a Lord willing, everybody gets there safely, and it's a full weekend. And so you may say, why Panama? One, we got engaged in Panama in 2014. Two, um, my family is from Panama. Three, my grandparents still live there. Four, a lot of our friends have never been. It's another opportunity to show them Panama. And yeah, because we did consider Mexico because we go there a lot, but we don't have any ties to it. It's just we just enjoy it. No ties and many people have been to Mexico before, so it was just an opportunity to show people the beautiful country and stuff like that. So we're very excited about that, but that also keeps our hand pretty full. If you've never planned anything before, you probably have no idea what it is, but coordinating and planning for 50 plus people for three days, three, four days is a lot. Okay, it's a lot, it's a lot, it's a lot that goes into it, along with everything else with the family and that are that's still happening. So excited about that, but a lot is happening. The content of that we'll try to keep the content going while we're there. We'll try to go. While we're there, yeah. That's that's another situation, but we have people in place to kind of capture it and do it all. So we're really, really excited about that. Spending time with family and friends. It may not really feel like a vacay, so we may need something after that because we're working to make sure everyone is settled and feels good about everything. But it's a fun time. It's a fun time that's coming up for us.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

This is one of those things where you can't wait to get there, then you're like, damn, I can't wait to be to get back because there's so much. It's only me. This has been in the works now for over a year. A year, yeah. So imagine having an event that you've been planning up for for a year, and then it's just the weekend, and it is over just like that.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

It's just like that. You better bask in it.

Panama Vow Renewal Planning Stress

SPEAKER_00 4:57

So, this is us celebrating 10 years of marriage, and then also at the same time, 10 years of the heart ceremony, too. Of our time. So we started literally the heart ship. You guys are watching this on YouTube. I'm pointing up above my head. That's the heart cermony logo. That's the hashtag we use for our wedding. Yeah. So this would be a 10-year anniversary for us being married, but then also 10 years of the heart ceremony, which you guys have been a part of now for some time. So maybe we do a special dedication episode to the heart ceremony. But yes, it's uh this event is a long time coming. It's one of those things that just it comes up in every conversation every single week. We are in the midst of planning that and at the very end stages at this point.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

So yes, yes, yes, yes. So that's what's happening with us. That's one big thing. Um, excited about that. And then we've had an all-peer. If you haven't heard us speak about that, it's basically a live in nanny where it's a culture exchange. They come from another country and they live with you. She was with us for an entire year. She's now been gone for the past two to three weeks. I want to say two to three weeks. And that has been an adjustment within itself. Because, as you know, we always speak about hired help and helping with our kids. And so, this is the first time that we won't have full-time in-home care, right? Because Alani, she's four, she's been in school since she she started school at two. Remember, we had a full-time nanny before that, then Amaya came five, six months later, and we've had an all-pair since then. So that has been a transition as well for us of not having full-time in-home care.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

It's a blessing, it's a it's a gift because we had an all-pair for three months, 90 days, and it didn't work out. And that's just like hiring an employee or a team member, whatever it may be. You get somebody in your house, obviously, you want to differ. A little bit different, but and it doesn't work out. You're like, Oh, I'm never gonna do this again. Yeah, so people ask us about our experience. We also explain the good and the bad with everything like we had someone that didn't work out, you know, based off the situation, and we went and put ourselves back in the search school, if you will. And we found somebody who was amazing for an entire year and had no issues. Yeah. So if we would have stopped at that first person, we would have never found our current all-pair or previous all-pair who literally blessed our lives for an entire year. Yep. And we're not the most emotional people. So the only time we really got emotional was on the drive to the airport with her. We was like, listen, yeah, we're not really emotional people, but definitely want us to just give you your flowers, you know, in private while we're driving here and just explain, like you were able to bless our lives.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

And she was like, actually, she's like, actually, I watched the episode. Yeah, because we have an episode. I was gonna say, if you want to know more about all peer, we have an episode detailing it, uh, which she did watch.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

And she said, did watch that episode, but and what's amazing about us continuing to share these stories and share the journey is that she was like, I've never been to all peer before, but you guys have gotten me to explore talking about it to more people, right? It's like, yeah, you know, things could have gone well, things could have gone bad, but you know, sharing my experience. And then we got friends and we got family who's asking about all pairs and learning about it and thinking about it because we shared our journey. Yeah, that's the whole purpose of us talking and having this podcast and having this show for you guys so we can continue to share our journey. But yeah, it's been it's been a blessing to have her.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

And honestly, we we understand it's been a blessing and a privilege for us to keep our kids home with us, you know, aligning till she was to our second till she's about a year and a half um before she went into school, which Amaya is now in school. She started last week and has done great. Um, we were the ones like, wait a minute. So, yeah, that that's been the all-pair story. We've still been in contact with her. The kids asked about her. I was very, very, very concerned about um Alani losing a best friend because she would be like, That's my best friend.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Our oldest daughter.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Amaya is a year and a half, she'll know left from right. So, you know, I figure she'll say her name, but not really have feelings about that. But I would say that Alani has been handling it pretty, pretty well. Shocking. You know, I know people say that kids are resilient and they can bounce back and things like that, which I agree, but it still was something that I was very concerned about how she will manage not having someone here. But the thing that she said was like, Who's gonna be my nanny now? So she's had a nanny, like I said, her first few years of her life, she went to school. She still sees that nanny once, once a month, once every six weeks. And so then she had someone living here. So it's it's a smart question, but we're like, you're not gonna have another nanny right now. So um, that was that.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Some of the things that look that the school and we were looking out for was like behavior changes, right? Because that's a lot of big changes for a young kid at one time. She got her best friend leaving, no longer with living with us. And then we'll talk about, you know, we talk about my going to school now. Yeah, so those are two big changes at once for her. So we was looking out for behavior changes, but overall, kids are gonna be kids. We posted about we're raw dog parenting. What did I call it? No, you said full-time. I said, baby, I've been full-time since we're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

We're full-time parents.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

I mean, yes, we're full, we're parents, but this is the first time us not having help. So we posted on social media, like, you know, what's some things that we should be looking out for? Just playing around. Like I said, prayer. There's like prayer. Nobody had none. Because at the end of the day, it's your journey, right? It's it's it's your journey.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

And then on the other side of that, with us our all pair leaving, we had a discussion about do we get another nanny for Amaya before she went to school? Because we just didn't want him to go to school before two. So, yeah, she's only about four months before two. So it was like, do we get another nanny? Does she stay home with us and continue to do her activities and stuff? And ultimately, ultimately, we made the decision to put her in school. I think that I think the things you see and read about second children is absolutely true. And the fact that they have someone else to look up to, so not that they're advanced, I don't know if I want to use that word, but she definitely seemed ready. The thing was, we weren't ready.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Um, when Alani went to school, we were technically pregnant with Amaya. And so, and I was working too. That's that's an added piece. And so our time and stuff like that was occupied with other things, preparing for a second baby, still working a nine to five. And so we didn't have that. So with Amaya going to school, it was kind of like, oh, this feels like the the end, like the absolute, like your youngest is going. It feels like, okay, what now? It just felt really different for her to go versus Alani. I don't know how else to describe that.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, it felt I felt very similar too. It was like we I keep saying the word empty nesters because technically we don't have any.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

They're not empty nesters for eight hours during the day.

Life After The Au Pair

SPEAKER_00 11:22

We don't have any kids in the house for eight hours. Like, what are you doing? It's it's a lot quieter in the home, which means that you think that you could get more work done. We'll talk about work. But you know, not having, even though we had someone in the house to support our our kid, they're no longer here, right? The youngest is in school, our all pairs no longer handed just.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

And she didn't work 24 hours a day. Some people who works 24 hours a day, people be asking that. Three, four hours out of the day, we were with Amaya during the day, so there was significant time spent, and that was the other piece of it that we were saying. When Alani was younger and the nanny was in the home, um, I was working a nine to five, but with Amaya being at home, I was not working a nine to five. So I feel like I was able to be with her a lot more than I was with Alani. And that probably played a part in feeling so sad of her leaving. Like if she's too young, leaving to go to school. Not is she too young? Is she ready for that? So that was just that was some of the emotions that came up for us as to why it felt different for her to go versus versus Alani.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

And I know we keep talking about nannies and all pairs, and it sounds like there's some privilege there. We yes, we understand that we do have some privilege in order to have our kids in, you know, these situations, but now, you know, she's in school. So our biggest goal is for her to continue her education when it comes to not only just learning ABC's one, two, threes, but we're very intentional about our kids learning Spanish, which is another reason why we're going to Panama. So we want to make sure we keep those lessons ingrained with them.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

And both of them are in Spanish immersion classrooms, so absolutely. So they only speak Spanish there. So that's another intention.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

So these are a lot of changes happening that that y'all that y'all getting at once. So yeah, our youngest is now in school, and it's been a blessing. And one thing I didn't realize is how much time it takes driving to and from school. That's literally an hour each way. Each way? Yeah, yeah. It could be an hour each way.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

By the time you get out, get the kids.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Two hours out your day, driving your kids to and from school. So we we were always intentional about making sure things are close to us so we don't have to spend this type of time in traffic. Especially since we work from home. Now it's happening where we're spending that time in traffic, and it's like, ain't no, like we Yeah, round trip is an hour. It could take some time, but again, it's it's a part of life, and it's just another part of the journey that that we're going through having our kids, and you guys are literally watching us document a process as we're doing it.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Yeah, so that's that piece. And then the other piece of it then we'll got another piece similar to it is about being a stay-at-home mom. Are you a stay-at-home mom? And I was like, I'm not. So because I I did a reel the other day, and I'm like, I'm not a stay-at-home mom now that my daughter's in school. So I looked up the definition of a stay-at-home mom, and then this is what it says a woman who is engaged in the full-time care of her child or children and does not go out to work.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

So, were you ever a stay-at-home mom?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

I know, because I wasn't going out to work, I was working in the home with the child with me. I don't know. Maybe it needs to be updated. Let us know in the comments. Maybe it needs to be updated. This is the Oxford language, that's what they said. But since the child isn't home, I'm not a stay-at-home mom. Nope. I've I've kind of come to that conclusion. In my reel, I was asking the question of now that she's in school, this is the first time that I would be a full-time entrepreneur without kids in the home. What is the day gonna look like? That was week one. Week two, the day is flying. I feel like I'm not having enough time, and I'm like, not enough hours in a day. There's not enough hours in a day, and I'm like, what is what is going on? Like, we have our businesses, so there's meetings, and then there's regular things that happen in the home. There's cooking, there's laundry, there's appointments, there's drop off, there's just things that happen in the home, and I'm like, time is running out. Yeah, time is running fast. So I'm eating my words of feeling like I don't know what I'm gonna be doing. To now, like, do I need to be part of the 5 a.m. club? Do I need to be getting up way earlier? Which I see people do, but I'm like, oh no, you know, I have the full day. I can go at 8 30, I can go at but then I'm not sitting down for a meeting until 11 o'clock.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

By the time I eat breakfast, shower, whatever, 11 o'clock is when my day is starting.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

It's like, uh I was talking to my my boy in the gym today, and I was like, I gotta wake up at five because like if dropping the kids an hour each way, that's from No, you're you're an hour round trip. Hour round trip. You know that. So that's eight to nine, nine to ten. I'm in the gym, ten to ten: thirty, eating, showering. You're again, you're not sitting down until 11.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Like, so now you really gotta wake up and be intentional about your day at five in the morning, which is what I was doing back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

But you were, but I think it's I don't, yeah, I don't know that I would do that every day.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Nah. But it it does make the day, the one day that I did over the past five days, I got so much done. I literally scripted a YouTube video, recorded the YouTube the same day, wrote some emails out to our audience. I was like, oh, I'm ready to go, I'm locked in. But every day you wake up and your wife is sleeping and your family's sleeping, you're like, damn.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

That's gonna be shady. That's two extra hours.

SPEAKER_00 16:22

I could be sleeping too. So you gotta make a decision as a as a person. Like, you you can't get more hours in the day. The only way you get more hours is to wake up earlier or stay up later. That's the only way you're getting more hours in the day. Yeah. So by the time you sit down at 11, you're like, listen, I already worked out, so that's one less thing I gotta do. I gotta shower, that's already done. So at least you get an hour back throughout your normal work cycle.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah, so I think that when people you think about entrepreneurship, it's like you can make your own squat schedule, which you can, but I think what we're saying is we don't want to start our day at 11. Like that feels really late. Now that could just be a nine to five mindset, but that just feels like we're 11 Central, that's 12 o'clock Eastern. People done, people going on lunch by the time we're starting to do some of the work and things that we need to do.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Here's the other challenge with that. So, yes, your work day starts at 11, meaning sitting down, but now you gotta do emails after I'm in the gym at 8 and I'm gonna I'm on a drive back from the kids checking my slack. Or I'm at a light checking my slack, or I'm at checking my slack. So even though your day does not start to 11, your team day starts at 8. So they are working, they are available, they're asking questions at 8 in the morning when technically your company opens. Yeah, so just because you're not physically sitting in front of a desk doesn't mean that work is not getting done, which means that I'm on a treadmill on my phone like this.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

We go to the same gym, and I said I'm gonna um record him and say me, see me doing squats, him on my phone. Anytime I'm like, you gotta, you gotta put it on me. At least 30 minutes, you gotta just ignore it. They could they the nothing is burning down. They need to be able to wait.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

That's true. I gotta do a better job at that. And that's one of the things about entrepreneurship is that people talk about oh, you got your free time, and it's like, no, my free time is consuming me thinking.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

So you're like, oh, I got all the time in the day. It's like, no, my time in the day is now thinking about the business, working on the business, things like that. So just because I may not be physically sitting in front of an office, I may be in a gym working, I may be on vacation looking at my phone, I may be whatever it may be. It's yeah, that's what you build. It doesn't stop. You build a remote business.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

I think we've had that conversation on here before. Like it doesn't, entrepreneurship, it just doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

You build a remote business to be able to build do it remotely from anywhere in the world. And the world could be the gym or the treadmill on the Snare Master. Speaking of stay-at-home mom, you were talking about your content journey. How's that been?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

A pause. It'd been a hard pause. I avoid so I was consistently posting from October 1st to like the middle of March. Sheesh. How many months is that? It was a long time.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

But then November, December, you were posting consistently.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Yeah, to like the middle or beginning of March. I was posting every single day on TikTok. I brought some stuff to Instagram. Um, but then I got tired of it. What do you mean? Kind of of like that creative juices, and then I was back to you hearing all the things. Like some people are like just post, just post. But then I was feeling like it wasn't not necessarily valuable, but some things were just throwaways. And I don't always want to have a throwaway. So I just eventually stopped. And now I'm trying to get back into it, but like it's like peddling. Like you don't lose it, but you gotta build back up your momentum of kind of getting back into the content. So I took a huge pause, huge being like a month, I would say, of maybe posting once or twice here and there.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

It's just like I think it's just like going to the gym. Again, you take time off, it's harder to get back into it. Give me a couple of times.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Well, I don't disagree. I don't disagree at all. I yeah, I some of your best posts was probably your throwaways. See, that's the thing. I don't know if I would call it best post, even if it has numbers. I don't know that I feel like that's who I am. Like we've had that conversation. I've had posts about like anytime I photo post about like a restaurant or food, it goes crazy, and I'm like, I'm not a foodie, I'm not a like a food content person. I don't plan to continue to do this, so it's kind of like bringing in the wrong people. Yeah, you know what I mean? So it's like, is it the best thing? No. So on one side, do I agree that you just gotta post to get it out there? Yes, but I also feel like I've been doing this long enough to be be more intentional about what I post, even if I'm throwing it out there, it still can be a bit more valuable to what I do or what I want to talk about.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Let me ask you, what do you want to talk about?

Entrepreneur Time Management And 5 AM

SPEAKER_01 20:26

That's the thing, I have no idea. But the things I do talk about or enjoy talking about generally is motherhood, entrepreneurship, and working out. Those are the topics that I find that I could continue with. Um intertwining them and you know, kind of mixing them together.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

So here's my request for you guys if you're watching this episode, drop some comments for her to let her know what you would like to see from her so she could keep the content going. Because we had a whole discussion around what you would want to do, and it's like where did we land? Nothing because I'm like, I see so much potential for you, like the day in the life you just did. I be I I don't like the day in the life because they take so much time from you, a lot of time, and I'm like, it's a waste of your time. Could you do five? I'm like, could you do five videos instead of just one? But it's like they come out and it's it gets so it's so well received. It's like, was it worth it? Absolutely. But you know, somebody had posted on threads. It's like, no, nobody wants to see a day in the life. And it's like, but we wouldn't be here 10 years on sharing our journey if nobody wants to.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

So I think the day in the life is a different world from our general audience. That's what I think. Because most of most people, you know, when we started on Instagram and social media, we were talking about a debt payoff. So we had an audience from that, but majority of our audience is cleaning business. So you guys and most of you guys just see us as that, like, you know, running a cleaning business business and teaching people how to do it. So I think for our audience, it's a switch up of like seeing a bit more personal into what we do and things like that. So I don't disagree in that day in the lives don't necessarily grow your audience. Because if I don't know you, why am I paying attention to it?

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

But there's some trainer lives I see that I I follow after watching it. So I think it just depends. But I think it also for us can nurture our audience to show them a different side of what's happening in our household outside of entrepreneurship and all those other things. The thoughts and things that we have, or I have.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

And I think for me, one of my biggest challenges is like you guys know us for the cleaning business stuff, but there's so many other things that we do. And it's like we've been sharing our journey now for 10 years. And part of it, maybe we go into more detail on the heart, maybe a hard trimony episode, but we've been, in my opinion, is like pigeonholed into this one corner. It's like we have the cleaning business, we have cleaning business university, we got Tiny Track, which is our automation software. We got the digital, we got another million dollar award for digital education and helping, you know, helping other people start their businesses that we haven't even exposed our audience to when it comes to and with the day in their life, that's a different way of kind of like doing that. So like there's these other facets where it's like I was talking to uh a business owner, he's a photographer, and we were just talking about business, and I helped him with his landing page, I helped him with some of his email, I helped him with some of his marketing. He's getting more, he's getting he's getting more ideas to grow his business. That's nothing to do with cleaning that I do on a regular basis, but I I need to find a way to how do you get out of this? How do I get out of this hole? Not even a hole, but just this one thing you guys see us for, and go back to like the overall general things because that's what grew our audience when we were talking about different things, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:31

So yeah, and and technically we see it all the time, right? The you people say like let the numbers or the engagement tell tell you what your audience wants. We can post clean the business stuff and low views. Anytime we pro post something personal, way higher views, way higher engagement. And it doesn't mean that you're not talking about the cleaning business or not talking about entrepreneur, you're just showing it in a different way. And so that's what that does for me. So I enjoy putting them out. It sh just is very time consuming.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

But the niche content is never gonna go as far as the broad content either. So day in the life versus the cleaning business stuff is only gonna pertain to people who want to start business versus. Our recent video that had the most amount of views was the church video, I think it was. Oh, the kids not being quiet in church. Yeah, kids not being quiet in church, and it was just me coming out of church. We were just we're in that we're in that season where both we're going back to church with our two kids and we got out of it for a while. Both of us are Catholic. So if you guys know anything about Catholic churches, it is extremely quiet, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:36

You and there is no uh kid drop off, essentially. Unless your kids are in Sunday school, which our kids are too young for that, there is no kid, they're in there with you.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Like, oh, drop them a kid job.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Well, yeah, that's not happening in the Catholic Church.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Um so I posted about our journey just getting the kids out of church. Like, oh, we made it a little bit further this time and we had to leave. And that post went crazy because people started leaving their comments around, oh, you take your kids out of church, would you take them out of school? And it's like, maybe if they're disrupting the entire class, I might and bring them home with us. I'm not learning, they're not learning. What we're doing. So we kind of talked about that, but again, that's more broad-based content. People who relate to that.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

So figuring out just even the Amex one where like your wife is demanding, like the send them back wife. Oh, like that type of stuff. Like, where can I speak to the manager wife? Because we all do it, like your food code or whatever the case may be. So those type of things go further, and we enjoy doing that, but it's just like, is that what sells? Is that what's bringing in revenue or income? Maybe maybe it helps people just see another side of us.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

Yeah, because so the point of social media is no longer just to be social. Like you build a social media platform to bring up to bank a brand to make allow that brand to make you money. So if we get a sponsorship from Amex or the church, cool. But if it's just if it's just getting views to get views, then it's not ideal.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Maybe not the church, but I ain't never seen the church do a sponsorship. But maybe maybe, maybe the church will, only God knows. But yeah, that that's kind of where where I am with it.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

Make sure y'all stay on top of her head too when it comes to content. If y'all don't see her posting, go on her Instagram page, uh, go on our Instagram.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

But I try to bring it over to Instagram. But yeah. What else did we want to talk about? Let's see. You want to talk a little bit about Eric Thomas. Oh podcast that you listen to. What's the name of the podcast?

SPEAKER_00 26:15

Oh, Secret to Success Podcast. If you guys don't watch this, especially my men, this is an amazing podcast. It talks about God, it talk about family, it talk about business, relationships.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

All of them are married.

Content Strategy Beyond One Niche

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Entrepreneurship, yes. Four black men who are married in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. So you got a good demographic or close to 60s, whatever it may be. But it was a story about a father took his kid to the store to buy a skateboard. And in our community, we don't really skateboard. So he was fearful about what could happen on the skateboard. You put your kid on a bike, they never rode a bike before, sit again in the store. The kid falls. In the store? In the store. Okay. And the father's like, whoa, whoa, let's all right, cool, let's wrap it up. He's like, Oh, let me try again. The kid gets on the skateboard and falls again. And the father's like, Hold on, sorry, he's like in the store. He's like, All right, now I'm embarrassed for you. Let's wrap this up. How old is this kid? Eight to ten years old. Oh, okay. So kid is like, wait, what you mean we leave? He's like, We're not getting we're not getting a skateboard no more. He was like, Oh, I thought you didn't want it. And he was like, Why would you think that? He's like, Because you just felt and people around and he's putting his fear on he's putting his fear onto the kid. And the quote that they were saying was, you have to have, what did I say? Childlike faith. You have to have childlike faith. Yeah. And it reminded me when we took our daughter, she's currently ice skating, and she's on the ice skates, and she is so afraid to fall. And she's so afraid to fall that she's not even moving.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

She's moving real slow.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

She's moving real slow. We got videos on Instagram. Maybe our editor puts them in. She's barely moving. I'm like a line of you have to fall. All the kids around her have fell. But let me tell you what happens when you fall. You get up. So now you are less afraid to fall because you've already been through it. You have fell once and you get back up and you keep going. So once she finally fell on the ice skating, having that childlike faith, she is now moving and grooving and racing. She's agile like a manga. Yeah, and she's able to keep up with the other kids because she fell. And it reminded me that we have to have that childlike faith because going back to Cleaning Business University and our students and even business in general, we when we want to start something, we're always afraid because, oh, I bought real estate in the past and it didn't work out. We even talk about real estate, but I bought real estate in the past and it didn't work out. Oh, I started this business and it didn't work out. You shouldn't do that. And we're putting our fears on other people because we lost our childlike faith. But imagine if you had somebody next to you who has done the thing. So the father was like, if I was a skateboarder and I took my son to get a skateboard, he would have felt we would have been good.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

But I've never been on the skateboard, so I'm telling him that he shouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

So we have this, we have this fear of starting something. Like our daughter, she will wake up and say, I want to go to Africa. Like, has she ever done that before? She does it twice, three times a week. Three times a week, three times a month. Like, I want to go to Africa. Why is she saying that she wants to go to Africa? Because she's been there before. One day we woke up, we went to Africa. Now, on the back end, that's not that's what it looked like for her, but obviously that would happen for happening for uh in real life. But in her mind, she woke up one day and we went to Africa. We was there. So in her mind, going to Africa is a regular thing. She doesn't she doesn't care about school, she doesn't care about finances, she doesn't care about what's going on in wars or travel or gas prices. She just knows one day I woke up and I wanted to go to Africa and I was like And I saw animals and I saw animals. So on a Tuesday morning, when I want to go to Africa, I'm gonna ask for it. So having that childlike faith, we get so removed, we get so fearful. I had a guy in the DMs literally just now. No too much, it's too much noise. I had a guy in the DMs literally saying, I'm going through your testimonials, I'm going through your masterclass, I'm going through your reviews, I'm online. And he says, Can this work for me? I was like, bro, you just went through everything that I would have sent you through, and you're asking me, Can this work for you? You tell me. You should have more information than me based on the research you're doing because you have done it for yourself. So you should be able to know if this can work for you. Now I can't guarantee anything, but going back to that childlike faith, all of our students who have achieved success, like, listen, I've never started this business before. Most of them have never started a business before. But like, you know, I'm gonna give it a shot. The cleaning business was our first business. Having that childlike faith. So we're sitting there afraid to start something because other people have said not to do it, or your mom or your aunt, but having somebody who has done the thing and being surrounded by other people who have done the thing will give you that faith in order for you to feel like you can do it. So that was an episode, and that that I had to share that because that was just a reminder of Alani ice skating and also asking on a Tuesday morning, can I go to Africa? So, can you go to Africa on a Tuesday morning? That was what I wanted to share with y'all. So, having that childlike faith so that you know you can do something to actually start something.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

You can. I don't know if it'll be in this household, but you can find somebody.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

Going to Africa on a Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

They can do it. I was like, uh, I don't know if we're gonna do that this year. And she's like, why not? I'm like, listen. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

When your kids act you ask you for Christmas gifts, you're not thinking, you're not sitting there saying, damn, like, oh, they asked me for Christmas gifts. It's like you trying to find a way. Your kids are automatically going to assume on Christmas, I'm going to have gifts. And if they don't, that's going to be on you as a parent. You are automatically assuming, they're automatically assuming every Christmas, I'm going to give my birthday or something. Or my birthday, I'm going to give it eggs on Easter, whatever. So you as a parent, you're not second guess. You're like, you know what? My kids ask for Christmas gifts. We're going to make sure we got it. But when it comes to our own thoughts, our own ideas, our own prayers, we sit in there saying, damn, what if? Or can this work for me? Or will it succeed? Or will it not? But having that childlike faith will allow you to see beyond the what ifs and this decide, what if this does work? Yep.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

That's always the thing. What if it does work? You'll never know. We've been sharing our journey, our story now for 10 years. And that's the thing I think that people say, like, I rather try than not. I'd rather try and see if I can hit the million than not. Never try. Then never try at all. Then never try at all. That's a real thing. We I mean, I don't that we I think we've had this before. Like, how do you get yourself out of that? I think being listening to podcasts, being around different people, hearing different things kind of give you that confidence. If you stay in that circle of that, don't do, don't do, don't do, then you won't.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

Yeah. If everybody around you is is doing one thing and you try to do something else, what they gonna say?

Childlike Faith And Starting Scared

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Yeah. They're gonna say, oh, and even if they do tell you something, technically what they're saying is null important, like it don't even matter, technically, because they haven't tried it.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Exactly. So you're talking to your grandmother who never got on the airplane to talk about travel, and she's like, Well, what if that plane crash? Okay, that's a little extreme. People don't travel because they think about planes crashing.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Well, I mean, yeah. Unless you've had her experience or something like that, yeah. I I get it. You don't have to have they're assuming like it might it might be possible. You could have gone the route of like, what if you get robbed in the country? Because that's what people think about. Like, countries are dangerous, so why go there?

SPEAKER_00 33:04

You gotta get to the country first. Yeah, people have never left the country because they've never gotten on a plane because they're afraid of flying because the plane might crash. So, could you imagine never getting on a plane because you're afraid of it? The what if?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

That's like anything in life, though.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

That's the what if of anything in life. The what ifs are gonna hold you back? So, why not worry about what if this does work? What if I do make it? What if I do get to Africa and get to experience it? So having that childlike faith will take you far. You gotta have that, gotta have that due diligence to try it. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Let me see. Is that all the topics that we have for today? I mean, pretty much we wanted to update some change. You mentioned, oh, real estate. This this will be the last thing, real estate. So I think back in whatever year, 2024, we had what year are we? Yeah, 2024, we had three rental properties. In 2025, we sold the one that we had in Dallas and remained with two in St. Louis. In 2026, we just sold one of our properties and remained with one in St. Louis. So now we only have one rental property at this time. And the question becomes, does it even make sense to have the one, right? Uh, I know with real estate, it kind of like you need to have a lot, not a lot, but a good amount for it to make sense, make sense. Because when it comes to the money that you're getting back after you pay your mortgage and things like that, you're not getting thousands of your cash flow. You're not getting thousands of dollars, let's be clear. So it doesn't make sense to even keep it, but right now we still got it.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

So there's a big right now, we still got it. There's a big conversation online that I've been seeing about um in the buy and hold and all that conversation. So real estate being a waste of a waste of money.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

And well, that was my thought process at least five, six years ago.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

And I don't listen, I'm not one of those people that's never gonna tell anyone to try anything, right? Our first property was a we thought it was a good buy, but there was a lot of things that we missed because we didn't know. You gotta go through those, you gotta go through those things, and we realized that it wasn't a good buy for us. Um our second property that we just sold, it was That was a good buy, but it just recorded. It was a good buy, but we had multiple thousand dollars, big ten thousand dollar jobs happening multiple times. And it at the end of the day for us, it was like it wasn't worth it. We would rather put that money into our businesses and our family or or even just stock market somewhere else. So when you got one ten thousand dollar expense, you're like, all right, cool. But then you got multiple, you like that's the whole other expenses, that's the whole cash flow for that property, right? For an entire year, for an entire year that's gone from just one turnover, not including any other damages that that came up. But this that's been a conversational line, and I'm never gonna tell anyone not to own um anything. I want our people to get out there and own some things, try some things, and if it works out, great. And if it doesn't, listen, sell it. You tried it, you said that part didn't work for you. Am I anti-real estate? Oh no, I would go buy more right now. But where it made it make sense for us at the time was to continue to keep putting into a property that required multiple expenses. And we sold somebody who was a handyman, they had plumbing experience, they had HVAG experience, and he was like, We're gonna fix some of this stuff up on our own and save money. So that was our journey um with the the second property, like you said, we still got another one, but I was like, let's get rid of it, and he was like, Let's do it. So we got rid of it, and that was the that's part of the journey, right? You buy things, you try them out, you see what works, you see what doesn't work, and it didn't work for us at the time. I am not opposed to it.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

No, not at all. But that is another episode of More Than a Side Hustle Podcast. We thank you for joining and tapping in and sticking with us. Listen, it's been four and a half years. I don't know. We've been doing this for a little bit. We've been doing it for a little while, and so we appreciate you um showing up, downloads, listening, sharing, whatever it is, and staying tapped in.

Real Estate Reality Check And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Make sure you subscribe to the podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you like and subscribe. If you listen to this on your Apple Podcast and you got this far, go leave us a five-star review. Please, if you if you listen to this, go leave us a five-star review. Show us some love. We've been reading those, we've been used to read them. We'll get back to it once again in the better.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

A little slow down a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

So how many reviews we got right now? Let me just go through since we're here, y'all. I want to I want to see how many we got. We got about 170 reviews. Yeah. So listen, if you left us a review, we appreciate it. Go leave us some more, and we're out. Peace. Have a good one. Bye.