What to Do When Your Work Isn't Fun Anymore with Rick Mulready

As an entrepreneur, I know how rewarding it can be to build a successful business from scratch. However, I also know that the path to success can be long and challenging, and sometimes it can take a toll on our mental and emotional well-being.

One of the most common issues that entrepreneurs face is burnout - the feeling of being exhausted and uninspired.

In this episode, I got to chat with my good friend, Rick Mulready, a successful entrepreneur who's been through this exact struggle and has some valuable advice to share.

In our conversation, Rick emphasized the significance of prioritizing what matters most in life and the need to care for ourselves just as much as we care for our businesses. He also talked about his courageous decision to take a 90-day sabbatical to focus on his well-being and spend quality time with his loved ones.

I found Rick's story to be inspiring because it takes immense strength to recognize when you're overwhelmed and need to make changes. So, I encourage you to listen to this episode and begin taking steps towards a more fulfilling, healthier, and happier life. After all, your well-being matters, and you deserve to give it the priority it deserves.

IN TODAY’S EPISODE, I DISCUSS: 

• How taking a sabbatical can help you find clarity and purpose
• How to recognize and overcome burnout in your business
• Why we need to redefine success and prioritize self-care

CONNECT WITH RICK:
Know more about Rick: rickmulready.com
Listen to Rick’s podcast: The Art of Online Business Podcast

RECOMMENDED EPISODES FOR YOU
If you liked this episode, you'll love these ones:

• Make More Money by Getting Paid More for What You Know
• Generate & Scale Your Income to Build Wealth Faster
• How to Quit Your Job & Build a Profitable Business
• How to Redefine Your Future with Lori Harder

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Take this free quiz to see where you are on the path to financial freedom and what your next steps are to move you to a new financial destiny at http://www.YourFinancialFreedomQuiz.com 

OTHER RESOURCES:
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Transcript

Mel Abraham  0:00  
Hey there, welcome to this episode of the Affluent Entrepreneur Show i You probably can tell that I'm not in my studio. This one was a special one that I had to get in. And so I had to do it outside the studio with a dear friend of mine, Rick Mulready. And, and this one is different. You know, one of the things that we talk about with respect to affluence is, how are you experiencing your life? The richer lifestyle, not the money in the bank account? Not the commas not the wealth, but how do you experience life? What does it feel like for you? And in this episode, we're gonna talk with Rick about something he was going through as an entrepreneur, successful entrepreneur as someone on the path to financial freedom, but maybe hasn't hasn't achieved it yet. And he realized that he was in a situation where he was struggling, it was manifesting Himself physically in him physiologically, emotionally, and all of that, and it's burnout. How do you deal with it? What happens when you start to struggle with this? Well, we're going to talk about what Rick's doing, how he set himself up financially, and didn't so he can take a 90 day sabbatical to clear his head, then you might go, I can't take 90 days off, I get it. But the question is, are you living a richer lifestyle? What does it take? We talk about all these things. In this episode, welcome to this episode of affluent entrepreneurs show. I think this one could change your life. Enjoy the episode. This is the affluent Entrepreneur Show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth. So you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect, so you can scale your business, scale your money, and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom. Because that's what it really means to be an affluent entrepreneur.Hey there, Rick, so

Mel Abraham  1:59  
Good to have you on the show. Man. This is way too long in coming. I don't know why we haven't done this sooner. Man.

Rick Mulready  2:06  
How long have you had the podcast now?

Mel Abraham  2:09  
It's going on two years next month.

Rick Mulready  2:12  
Is this my first time on?

Mel Abraham  2:14  
It is your first time on and I know that I've been on your podcast I think at least twice.

Rick Mulready  2:21  
Thanks for having me. Man is truly honored to be here. Right now. I am I am. I'm even I even have my standing desk all the way lifted up. I'm standing up I'm energized. I'm ready to go man.

Mel Abraham  2:35  
Oh my god. So so good to have you here, brother.

Rick Mulready  2:39  
Yeah, I don't know what we're gonna be. I don't know where this conversation is gonna go. But regardless is going to be fun.

Mel Abraham  2:44  
Yeah, yeah. Well, for those of you that don't know, I said something in the in the introduction about about Rick, Rick and I are our dear dear friends we met originally in a mastermind years ago, and, and became good friends. And he's down south. And, you know, and I don't know, if if any of you do this, if you don't, you should. And, and you should right away, is find a peer group or someone that you can reach out to someone that you can connect with someone that you can go have coffee with, you know, once a quarter or something like that. And that's kind of what Rick and I have done. And we've, we've become not only friends, but peers in in the sense of guiding each other when things are not necessarily going the way we want. And so this conversation is going to be an interesting one, because we're going to talk about affluence, but we're going to talk about life and how we're experiencing life. And what some things are that Rick has gone through that maybe you'll relate to, I think that we all go through these things and how Rick is dealing with it may give you some insights and some things to do. So before we get to any of that. Let's just talk about Rick Mulready how he got here. I mean, you you harken back to the days of you've Got Mail and AOL.

Rick Mulready  4:08  
Literally, I literally worked at AOL. I started there in 2000. And I remember working in there was and I worked in it was in Vienna, Virginia, because I went to school in Northern Virginia. And I remember being in the original office of where AOL was basically started. And this was literally back when I remember walking in the the office on my first day, and there were stacks and stacks and stacks of those CDs that they sent out so that you can connect to the internet and hear that You've Got Mail sort of thing. And so yeah, that was my first sort of foray if you will, and getting into this whole world of online advertising because I It was, at that time I was doing, I was in a group what they call advertising operations, which means there was a sales team selling online ads. And I'm dating myself, this is way back when they were, I mean, there was banner ads. That's it, you know, static banner ads, and they called it quote unquote, rich media, when there's animation in the banners. But anyway, the sales team sold the advertising to, you know, the comp two brands. And then the team that I was working on was actually implementing it in a Wells, advertising proprietary advertising systems. So I did, I was there for a little over four years. And I moved my way up, I was actually running the operations team, and just a couple years, and I love that time. But you know, as so many things were happening back then, you know, in the.com, burst and all that bubble bursts and all that stuff like that I spent four years there. Then I came out here to the West Coast, I worked for Yahoo, I worked for Funny or Die, I worked for another contextual advertising platform, which I think was ahead of its time because it's so funny, because now coming back around and the importance of all that. And then I got just got tired of working for other companies. And tired of, you know, my both financial well being and my emotional health being, I was relying on other people too much in order for that to happen. Because I was selling advertising. I was an online ad sales for years. And I just didn't like it anymore. I love the selling part. I just didn't like working for a company, and working with the people and these other agencies that I had to work with. And so I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna go start my, I'm gonna go be an online entrepreneur, which no idea what that really meant. And I'll never forget, I hired a coach way back then. And the question that he asked me was, if you cuz I said, I don't know what to do. To start doing my business. He said, Well, if you could, if you had to help me with something in two days from now, what would it be? And I said, Well, I'll fake Facebook ads, because, you know, Facebook was advertising was blowing up on Facebook, and I understood the online ad world. And he's like, okay, great. That's what you're gonna do. And so, that was, well, that conversation was in 2012, so 11 years ago, but I left the corporate world in the fall of 20. Fall 2012. And then, really, truly started the online business in January 2014. So nine and a half years ago. 

Mel Abraham  7:54  
Wow. Wow, that's like, that's what the business is based on. someone telling you, this is what you need to do.

Rick Mulready  8:00  
Yeah, basically, because he had a website where his name is Adam Baker, and he had a website called Man vs debt. And so he was making money with like, ebooks. And, you know, and other, you know, very simplistic ways of generating money from his website. And I was fascinated by it. And I don't remember how I got connected with him in terms of why I was looking at his website or whatever. But I ended up reaching out to him. And I was like, Hey, would you ever consider coaching somebody? And he's like, I don't know, never done it before. And He charged me $500 a month. Yeah, and, yeah, that, but that's really what it was. That was the question is, if you had to help me with something in the next 48 hours, what would it like? How would you help me? And I said, online advertising, Facebook ads? And he's like, okay, there it is. 

Mel Abraham  9:01  
Really, it strips down the whole idea of let's get to your expertise. Let's get to something that's commercial grade, that we can we can mark it that falls in line with your core strengths. Yep.

Rick Mulready  9:14  
Totally. Because I understood the online ad space, like, you know, and I get it Facebook ads, and Instagram ads, and online advertising and all that stuff is very challenging for a lot of people. Not only to like to do it, but also just to kind of understand the landscape. And I mean, it's been 2030 years now. I started Facebook ads in 2010. And maybe that's when I had that. That was the conversation it was 2010. And so like it just as 13 years ago, but doing it a long time. And then add to that all the years I've been in the corporate space starting in 2000. And it just comes very easy to me. Just understanding like how things work and where everything fits together and stuff like that. So, and it also interests me, I'm just fascinated by the online space in general. So cool

Mel Abraham  10:12  
to hear that it's, and hopefully the the listeners and the viewers will will kind of look at this and say, Well wait a second, if I'm looking to create multiple streams of income, because it's something that I tell people, multiple streams of income is, it's no longer a luxury, it's a it's a responsibility. It's a requirement if we want to find financial freedom, and some security. And then one of the best ways is to answer that question that was asked of you. What are the what are the things that if in two days, you had to teach someone what what would that be? Because if we can get an online, business rollin, it is the highest margin business out there, one of the highest margin businesses out there. It's so so it's a good place for us to to play now. Doesn't mean that you're corralled, you've done so much more than just ads. In fact, I watched you transition from, you know, teaching people how to do ads, doing ads, and doing that into other areas of the online space, the coaching, the mentoring, the business space. Tell us how that works.

Rick Mulready  11:20  
I just got, I mean, to be honest with you, I got tired of talking about ads all the time. Because it was I mean, here we are in 2023. So this is probably four years ago. 2019 ish. Yeah. That, you know, so many people are coming to me, I remember exactly when this happened. I was in a conference room here in San Diego. And I was holding a, a cheaper two day retreat with some of my accelerator members. I've had a version of accelerator coaching program for many years. Now, it's very different back then it was different from what it is now. But we were sitting in a conference room and people to get up and ask their questions. And at least half the group was up there asking, and this is back when it was ads focused only, they were asked, they were saying like, Well, my ads aren't working. And I don't know, I can't get a good cost per lead. And when we broke it down, it had nothing. They all everybody thought like, Oh, I'm doing something wrong inside of ads manager, I'm not setting it up correctly, or not pressing the right buttons, or I don't have the right targeting or what have you. And it wasn't that at all. Because honestly, that's very easy to learn, very easy to learn. But what they were missing was the fundamental marketing, fundamental marketing knowledge of what they were doing in their business. And what I mean by that is, well, the reason that their lead costs were so high, is because the lead magnet their freebie that they were giving away, had, what wasn't a good offer for their target audience. And so that's just basically understanding your target audience, and what problems are you solving? And what challenges are they having? And how do you help them specifically? And then once you have that, then it's like, alright, well, how do you speak to them? How do you message with them? How do you write copy, etc? How do you speak to them? And so on the flip side of that, so that was one thing that it was like, alright, it's ads. But now we're backing up a little bit, we're kind of, we're stretching out a little bit and saying, Okay, now we're in more marketing, fundamental knowledge here. Then on the flip side of that, people were having were coming to me where they were having great success with their ads, and their business is blowing up. And now they're like, oh, I don't know what to do with my like, I need help. I'm working all the time. I always start to hire people. And how do I start to be a leader? And how do I start to not work 18 hours a day. And so that's, and that was whatever people asked me those types of questions. I was jazzed, you know, because it was different than because number one, I was good at it. And number two is different from ads. And so I was like, Alright, cool. And so at that time, I had the podcast, the art of paid traffic, where, just as it sounds, I was talking about ads and all forms of paid traffic. And so I really wanted to start to make that shift into expanding beyond just ads. And I was like, Well, I don't really know what to do here. I have, you know, I built this great audience and they know me for ads and all this other stuff. And so what I started to do was I started sprinkling in these other conversations on the podcast, things about team things about mindset things about systems and processes, then, you know, all these types of things. I was like, alright, well, I'm gonna kind of sit back and see how it's received. And people loved it. And so eventually I changed the name to what it is now. The Art of online business. And you know, on the show, I talk all things scaling your online business, I focus on course creators, membership creators on my coaches. And it's everything from sales and marketing to systems and processes to mindset to team, all that stuff. And primarily my audiences, they're doing six figures. And, and, yeah, and I still teach ads. Right? It's still Yeah, you know, it's still comes very easy to me. But it's, it's just one piece of the puzzle. Yeah.

Mel Abraham  15:38  
And I think that if there's anything to be taken away from that, is the fact that no matter what the technology is, no matter what we have at our disposal to execute, it doesn't replace fundamental marketing, messaging, and business acumen business strategies, they that is underneath it all, no matter what we're doing and how we're doing it.

Rick Mulready  16:05  
And that's where so many people struggle, because they think it's something else. And I posted in the Facebook group of, of our accelerator coaching program a couple of weeks ago, when we're recording this. And I said, this was the post I said, at its core business is very simple. Yeah. And it was six steps, I think it was and it's like, Alright, how can you? How can you help somebody? What is your special skill? And then who do you want to help? Like, what are their struggles? What are their challenges? And then, you know, I just listed out like, then it's, you know, met, being able to message that, what is the promise of what you want to deliver? And then how are you attracting those people? And then how are you selling to them? And then how are you fulfilling on it? That's it. Oh, it's very, that's a very simplistic terms. But when we think about it, that's really what it comes down to. And most people lose sight of that. And myself included for a long time, I

Mel Abraham  17:02  
think it's easy to get caught up in the strategy caught up in the, in the technology, and lose sight of that. And in that process, we lose connection with the market, we lose connection with our clients, we lose connection with the real purpose we're serving.

Rick Mulready  17:22  
I think it's, it's so true now, because I remember having a conversation with one of our members a few months ago, and she's in the teaching space. So she serves teachers. And they were, I mean, she was really frustrated because the messaging that they were doing, and, and they had an evergreen funnel, and it wasn't converting as much as they wanted it to. And I couldn't quite figure out why. And I said, Well, why don't you talk to Why don't you more regularly talk to your audience, find out what they're struggling with. Because we all know, in the past few years, teachers have been through it, you know, it's always something, you know, for that profession, and they've just had such a hard time and just such a rough go. And so because of that, what they're going through, seems like it changes on almost like a, you know, like a 90 day cycle, if you will. And so it's like, we have to understand our audience to be able to speak to them based on what they're going through at that time. Whereas most people would just have one message, and not, you know, just lose sight of what, what, what their audience is going through. And then just to be like, Well, why isn't like why isn't my stuff converting better? Well, it's because your message is the same message has always been and it's not speaking to your audience anymore. And this goes back to the basics of business, understanding what problem you solve and what they're what they're challenged with.

Mel Abraham  18:52  
So interesting enough, I think that I've heard someone say once he said, We need to speak to where our audience is. And in some cases, your audience is searching for the yacht. In other cases, they're searching for the life raft. If we're selling the life raft, when they're looking for the yacht, they're not buying if we're selling the yacht when they're looking for the life raft, they're not buying, we need to understand where they are. A lot of people are looking for a life raft right now.

Rick Mulready  19:25  
Yeah. And we, we, it's easy to lose sight of when we're not willing to listen. Yeah, and have conversations. I mean, one of the best things I did my business I'll never forget. It was a year and a half into my business. So this would have been the middle of 2015 I was sitting in a Starbucks in Carlsbad here in San Diego, and I was having I had lined up for five store. Yeah, I don't know why I was in Starbucks at that time, man. That is like last last last resort. Oh, that's like a step up from Hotel coffee. But I was I had, you know, this is back when Skype was the way that we, you know, had calls. And I had like four Skype calls with my, quote, ideal people from the program I had at the time, which was called FB advantage. And I remember getting off those calls thinking, what, why did I wait so long to have these conversations because that is just gold. Everybody always wants to know, like, Oh, am I terrible at copywriting, or I can't write ad copy, or I don't know what to say or whatever. Just say what your what your customers are saying, or what your audience is, they just use their words. You're not saying like Sally said, this, you're just like, you're looking at what they said, you know, like putting that in their copy. It's one of the quickest ways and easiest ways to be like, Oh, my God, they get me. You know, like, they must be in my head because you're using the same language. 

Mel Abraham  20:58  
But everyone's so good. So good. Now, so you kind of transition. But at the same time, you're an extremely successful accelerator, all the things that you're doing, you have speaking at big conferences, and, and social media world and that kind of thing. But there was something there's something going on and why I'm wanting to bring this up, is I think that a lot of us go through what you are going through, but don't have the courage to do something about it. You know, as you start to come into this last, let's just call it the last 12 months. I don't know if that's the case. But But yeah. What tell us about how, how this journey of entrepreneurship started transition for a started, what you are feeling and everything, because this really speaks to the truth of what we should be thinking about as entrepreneurs, which is how we feel and experience our life, and not how much we put in our bank account.

Rick Mulready  22:05  
So many different directions. I can go with this and talk about Yeah, but yeah, I mean, about a year ago, well, first of all, my, my life completely changed for the most amazing in the most amazing way possible when my daughter was born, she was born in December of 2018. So she's a timer recording this, she's almost four and a half. And, you know, she's just everything. About a year ago, I there was just something, I started noticing something in myself where I wasn't feeling I wasn't having as much fun anymore in the business. And I would just be exhausted from the things that I was doing in the business. And it was really, I was never, I was never able to really shut off. Like I would, you know, yes, I would close a laptop in the evening. But that was, that was more of a literal sense. Because figuratively, my brain was still going. And I'm just I'm the type of I have struggled with, you know, anxiety and stuff like that for since I was a little kid. And so that's already there. But I this was different, I sort of started feeling differently about the business. But I didn't really think much of it. Other than Yeah, I'm noticing this, but I'm going to keep pushing forward because that's what I have to do. Right. And fast forward, up until about, say three months ago. In early 2023, i It started affecting me on not only an emotional level, but also on a physical level, emotional level from the perspective of like, I was finding myself really short with my my daughter. And I wasn't really present when, you know, we were at the playground up the street, or, you know, we were playing in the living room here or what have you, or when I was talking to my wife, Amy, you know, we'd be talking and then my brain would be out somewhere else. And I'd have brain fog and all this other stuff. I just really notice it like this is not how we want to be showing up. I also I can tell I'm very in tune with my body and I can tell that something wasn't right. I can tell that you know, like, just something was off. And then I started getting headaches, which is not normal for me. I started getting headaches every day in the mornings and this wasn't coffee related. And I started getting headaches and it just like Wait what's what's going on with with this? And then I would find myself I would be on coaching calls with our members. And my eyes my my left eyebrows would start twitching and I again Just because I've had that before, I'm like, no, no, no, no big deal. But it started happening like every day. And, again, I was like, I don't really, I don't really know what this is. And just I wasn't happy. And all these things were going on. And I was still at that point was just like, you know, I'm just powering through. And, you know, I'd had some conversations with with you about it, and, you know, a couple other people, and then a, quote, well known person in the online space up and closed her business. Like just snap, you know, like, yeah, and I don't know her personally, I knew of her. I didn't know how long this was in the works or anything. But it seemed sudden. And I just remember reading what, what they wrote about it. And I was like, respect, like, good for you. And then that's what sort of started me thinking about, wait, what if I did something like this? Now, what that person did was like, indefinite, like they're shutting, they're shutting the business down. And I wasn't ready to do that. But I also knew that, wow, what would a break? Look? What would an extended break look like? That you couldn't, you couldn't continue the way you were? I could not continue. Because it was getting to, especially with the physical symptoms of headaches, and just my body not feeling right. And like, this weird muscle spasm, and my, you know, it, I couldn't continue, you know, and also I just the thought of like, marketing, the business was just, and that's like, what I've been doing for years and years is like, oh, you know, and, you know, I have the podcasts and we, we just published seven, episode number 700. And, you know, we've been doing that a long time. And it just, it wasn't, it felt more like a, I just have to do it. Because I release two episodes every week is what I do. It's what people expect from a lot about what we do. Totally, yeah. And so I knew that something had to change, or I was going to break in some way. And I have a four year old, you know, like, I don't want anything to happen, you know, to me. And so that's where I was, like, I know, something needs to change. And so I started thinking about it. And I was like, Is this even possible? And so that, obviously, the first person that comes to my mind is money. And like, Is this possible financially? And I immediate was like, no, like, I could never do it like, this isn't, you know, and so, before I even, you know, I'd mentioned a little bit to Amy, my wife, but not seriously, but the first serious conversation I had about it was with Emily, my, you know, bookkeeper, and reached out and told her was going on, and she'd kind of known this, but I said, Is this you know, is this a conversation that we could have meaning? Like, is it impossible? Is it is it? Should we even be talking about it? And she's like, Yeah, it should be on the table. And it was, like she said to me, she said, I'll never forget that. She said, How does it feel to hear that? Like that it should be on the table. And it literally was like, ah, it was like, my shoulders went back went down. And it was just such a relief to just know that this was something I could even just I could consider.

Mel Abraham  28:48  
Well, here's the interesting thing. You were talking about the financial side of it.

Rick Mulready  28:53  
Yeah, here.

Mel Abraham  28:58  
But the reality is that there's no time that it actually shouldn't be on the table. Because the cost on the other side? Could have been your health. Yeah, could have been relationship with your wife. Yep, the relationship with your daughter, and everything else in between. And so I think that the real question has to be when we get to these points now, look, there's things that we do on a daily basis that you go, I just don't like doing that. But when it starts to be a pervasive problem and tugging, we need to pay attention to it. And I think that that question really has to be not if but how do I make this happen? Because the cost on the other end of that, if I don't figure it out, is far greater than the financial cost. I think it's just my Specter.

Rick Mulready  30:00  
Yeah. And I don't think that I really, I mean, yeah, I understood that. But I honestly, really, that hasn't really come to the head of importance, if you will, for me until the last couple of weeks. Yeah, you and I talk a lot about, like, you know, Jeremy, I don't know how old Jeremy is, I forget, but he's certainly 3333. And everybody who tells me, You know, I hear this from everybody, like, Don't blink, they're gonna be a teenager, before you know it, and cetera. And, you know, minus four and a half. And I love this time with her, she and I are super close. And I don't, I don't want anything to affect that. And, and I'm also, you know, I totally, totally understand that I'm in a very fortunate position to be able to, like, stop in the middle of the day and hang out with her go pick her up from school, or what have you. But, yeah, it wasn't until the last few weeks where, you know, like, I, this was such a good decision to make, by the way, the decision I made was to take a sabbatical for for 90 days. Yeah, and step away. And being able to an M going in, we're actually recording this, like two days before I officially go on. 

Mel Abraham  31:25  
And people are asking me, like, a day or two after you sent the email out to everyone.

Rick Mulready  31:27  
Yes, yeah. And, you know, people have asked me like, well, what are you going to do and stuff like that? And I'm like, I don't really have any expectations of what do I want to get out of it? or what have you, but I know that I'm going to take better care of myself, I need to just step back from everything and let my brain unwind, basically, and spend a whole lot of time with Maya and Amy. And I didn't think that I would be able to do it from a financial perspective. And and I don't know if you want to go down this route, but like, you are a big piece of why I'm able to do it. Because we set things up in the business financially, where we had a plan where money was going, essentially. And you work really lockstep with Emily, my bookkeeper. And so I always feel supported on the financial side. And when we went in there to look at like, oh, is this possible? And she already knew she's like, Yeah, absolutely. And I was like, Okay, wait a minute, why, like, break it? And, like, explain to me why, like, how are we getting to that answer? And it was kind of like, Oh, okay. Awesome. Cool. Let's do this. Okay, now that the decision is made, what does this look like? Now? How do I communicate this to my accelerator members who are paying me money every month, and here I am, I'm taking three, I'm gonna take a three month pause. You know, and so that was one thing that Emily and I went through was like, you know, from a financial perspective, is there like, what are the worst case scenarios? What are the best case scenarios? But to your point earlier, Mel, like was something had to change. I didn't care at that point, what the worst case scenario was, yeah, you know, and I still don't honestly, because I'm at a point where this has to happen.

Mel Abraham  33:35  
It has to a lot of courage to, to look at it and face it, and say, I gotta change something, you know, and as blessed as we are, and you are and everything, it's not about the lack of gratitude. It's about making sure that you're living true to the path that you should be on. And the realization I think this drove me a lot even when when the Ponzi scheme especially with Jeremy Mize watching you. Yeah, it's just gonna take more away from how you show up and what you do then once you say, and, and now she gets a chance to see her dad, fully present, fully engaged, and in reinventing if you will, and knowing that her dad's there these years are irreplaceable. Yeah, and they will go by fast. I and so I think this is, you know, you're doing it financially smart. But I think more importantly, you're, this is really important. And so many of us just don't, we're unwilling to look to make those hard decisions. we're unwilling to look at it and say, I'm, I'm miserable every single day and I don't know why.

Rick Mulready  34:59  
Yeah. And that's exactly what. Yeah, yeah, that's what I

Mel Abraham  35:04  
was taking that home. We take that we take it and it's it manifests itself physiologically emotionally. But then the people that bear the burden and the brunt of it, the people we love the most. Yeah. And now, there's this parade or ripple effect. That was never intended. Yeah, but it's because we're trying to place some something somewhere, and you're willing to sit back go knows it's me. I'll figure this out.

Rick Mulready  35:37  
Yeah. Well, I mean, thank you for saying that like, but I, I actually, you don't know this. And I'm, but I'm gonna tell you right now in front of all your audience here. And I know that you've told the pic told this story many times here on the show, of when Jeremy drew that picture of you. And you had a phone and each any channel in each year. And I think about that a lot. Because here, I have a four year old and you're absolutely right, she's picking up on everything. And just yesterday, she she comes into the office here. And you know, I have you know, my mic, you know, I big podcasting mic here and I have a road caster Pro for my podcast, that's, you know, that's all lit up, and you can press fun buttons on there and big monitor, and she comes in, she likes to come down, come here, sit down, put put the headphones on, and start playing with the buttons and start banging on the keyboard. And I have a for those of you watching on on video, I have this. This is a remote from my air conditioner here in the office. And she likes to use it as her phone. And you know, and she's not saying like, but she's modeling data at that point. And it's she's having fun with it in the office. And she's not referring to it in other ways. But it is I'm a very I'm very aware of it. Yeah, you know, and when I tell her, you know, when I first told her that, I think my wife told her that I was going to take a vacation, a long vacation. She was so excited. And she said to me this morning, she said, you're on vacation this as of this weekend, right? I said, Yep. It's gonna be a long vacation. She's so excited. And so that right there says a lot. And I think the interesting part of that is I really don't work that many hours compared to a lot of people I work about 25 hours a week. And some people are listening right now like, oh, geez, like, you know, only 25 hours a week, which true, it's completely true. But I felt even with that, I felt like I was still going going going all the time. And I know that that's work that I need to do. But as it relates to my daughter, I'm sure she's been seeing that, you know, and how that was affecting me. And she just wants to play, you know, she just wants you know, it when I'm with her when she's playing with me, she just wants my attention. And when I'm not able to give that I'm certainly not living the, you know, affluent, light life that you talk about here on the show in there. 

Mel Abraham  38:26  
And the reality is that no child wants our profits, they want our presence. Yeah. And that's that's the truth. But it's it's the whole idea of a rich lifestyle rich lifestyles, how we experiences how we feel it, it's, it's the people in it. It's all of those things. I you know, I'm an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego Law School. I'm not, it's been a few years, but they bring me back to talk about entrepreneurship, money and valuation. And the last day of class, these these folks are getting an advanced degree, they've spent a lot of money for their education. Last day class, I bring in the pizza, they bring in the beverages, I let your minds go where they go on the bed. And I usually have a conversation with them. And I say, Hey, y'all are going into this profession and the legal profession, you're going to be doing this I said, if it comes that you have this pervasive misery, that's just you know, don't feel that you absolutely have to stay where you're at just because you went and got this expensive education. Yeah, if that's driving you if that's really it, not not having the momentary god, that was horrible day, but it's affecting you. You gotta listen to that voice. Because we have one time here. Yeah.

Rick Mulready  39:49  
It's something that I you know, and I mentioned him when I did the podcast episode about the sabbatical and in my email I wrote to the to my list like, I've I have been so tired. Just on the number of emails I've gotten from people responding to that, and sharing their own experience sharing their feedback, sharing their thoughts, so many people are going through this, so many people are going through it. And, you know, people are saying, like, yeah, I hit my, I hit my rock bottom and 2021 I, you know, I whatever. And, and I know, as well as you do, there's a hell of a lot of people in the online space that are experiencing this right now. But don't won't, I don't know, we'll call it own up to it. Yeah, because I think that more people need to talk about this. And I was on, I was on two calls yesterday with, with a couple of my members in accelerator, two different calls. One person was, I won't go into too many details, but basically, the what they were describing, I was like, yep, that is burnout. Because I'm like, that is exactly what I feel. And they're describing this and they have, you know, a new, a newer baby, they have a five year old and then other kids and stuff like like just a lot going on, they've a very successful business, very successful. Other projects in the business, and they didn't bake extended breaks into their bit into their, into their, you know, basically they're in their year, essentially. And they're burned out. And there's this guilt around wanting to take a sabbatical or any period of time, and they were just talking about taking like a month off. But I think that's so common for so many people like others guilt, especially because they have a big team. And they feel guilty around it, you know, another person is in the just leave it well, it's in the money field and just wrapped up a very busy time of year, shall we say, in and now that it's the end of April, and complete burnout also, but to your point earlier, saying that, why we should have the opportunity or the ability to be able to take a break when we need it because of how we set the business up. This person said to me, I told her, I said you need to take a break. And the signs are all there. And they said, I can't think of a seven day period where I can be away from my keyboard. And so, like my mind, sort of before we get off that call, I said you got to figure out how to take a break because i The signs are there.

Mel Abraham  42:55  
This speaks to something that I hope, this hope because this when that whole thing happened with Jeremy, I had a whole lot of people in my ears talking about, you got to get work life balance, you got to get work life balance, and I go, No, it's not about balance balances, like, you've got two things that are counterweights to create balance in the middle. But it's, that's not the way to live, because you have the pressure of two weights. They said it's really harmony in harmony is built on intent in sin back and saying, Am I like like this person you had a conversation with? It would my interpretation would be and it may be hard to accept and it might be confronting, but my interpretation would be who's calling the shots. That's not an intentional life. Harmony is driven by it doesn't mean that everything's equal, it means that everything is as you want it in the sense of, I'm going to spend this amount of time with my family, and it's going to be focused, and I'm going to shut things down. And I'm going to do that. And and this is a season that I'm going into launch or, or a product promotion. And so I got to spend more time it's so it's the key is that it's intentional, and by choice versus unintentional. And by you know demand, because we can't we can't sustain ourselves and we can't have that Richard lifestyle. Now I get it. You know, people might say that, Oh, well. Aren't you so lucky to be able to do that. And I go, maybe and I still believe everyone has the ability to have choice. And we just got to find the pathway to make it happen.

Rick Mulready  44:43  
Yeah, a lot of people are asking me like, how am I going to spend this sabbatical? And, you know, we're talking about before we hit record, like I don't, I don't have any expectations about like, you know, I was talking to somebody last week and I said, I really want to respect the process. CES have a sabbatical. Sounds good. I have no idea really what that means, you know? And they say, Well, what's your goal of the sabbatical? And I said, Well, you know, like, I'm gonna rest and step back, and, you know, clear my head and all this other stuff. And I really want to see what lights me up. And I've been working on this AI, I just am fascinated by this, the AI world. And I've been working on this, this chat bot. It's a AI powered chat, coaching Chatbot. That whole, it's a conversational chat bot as if somebody's having a conversation with me. And the knowledge that it's pulling from, as we've compiled 1000s of lines in a Google sheet of questions and answers. And I've gone through all these, you know, answers like this is these are people questions that have people have asked me? And then how I would answer them from from years of being an online business. So anyway, I am really jazzed about this like I am, this is something I'm really energized about. And so I was telling this person that. And I said, Yeah, I plan to, you know, I feel a little bit guilty, but I plan on taking some of the sabbatical to work on this. And I will, why do you feel guilty about it? And I was like, because I feel like a sabbatical is, you know, stepping back and doing no work or what have you. And they said, Well, if your goal is to sort of recalibrate, and this brings you energy, then why can't that be part of it? And yeah, it's really interesting. So I am going to be working on this project during the sabbatical, because it doesn't feel like work to me. And it's it's very energizing. And I don't know, I don't know, really, I don't know, why bring that up. But I just think that just I think that it speaks to being aware of how you're feeling about different things, and making those choices accordingly.

Mel Abraham  47:12  
Yeah. And then, and being you know, just like I said earlier, that if you sit back and say, I don't want to do this, that much longer, then now the question to ask isn't, look, you have a family with four kids, and you're the your sole income earner, and you're working from check to check. Commitment isn't saying I'm taking sabbatical, or I'm quitting or I'm doing that's, that's reckless. Okay. So the question is, if I need this, how do I, you know, how do we put things in place, which you happen to do already, to make it a reality, a possibility. So if you're feeling that tug, if you're feeling that, that, that feeling that I got it, I gotta figure some things out, I may need to step back and you, you want to do it, then before you go off half cocked and reckless, then you sit back and say, let me put a plan in place. Let me let me put some things in place that give me the latitude because the worst thing you can do is trying to take a sabbatical that you can't financially sustain yourself. Now you're stressed out, as all get out during the sabbatical, and you get no clarity, you know, and now you're even worse shape.

Rick Mulready  48:29  
That's, that's what Emily, my bookkeeper said, she said, You know, I mean, obviously, it's not a case of like, we'll take it for as long as you want. But just be mindful that you are an anxious person, anyway. And that we, we don't want to spend the time doing exactly what you just said, Mel of like, being anxious around, you know, the money in all that stuff. And that was one of the questions I asked her I was like, Okay, after after these three months, because revenue Takes a Dip, obviously, because I'm pausing every, you know, I'm pausing the revenue for 90 days. And I said, Well, after that 90 days, what kind of runway do we have at that point? And, you know, he told me, I was like, Okay, I feel much, I feel much better. And that runway, by the way, is not does not include the emergency fund that we've created based on your guidance in terms of amount and all that stuff. And so, again, worst case scenario, I'll deal with it because something has to change. So good. So

Mel Abraham  49:51  
I hope that people are really starting to think about it, you know, and not not that everyone needs to take a sabbatical, but Think about having the courage to really examine your life, and how you're living your life, how you're showing up, what is the business doing? What is your life doing? Is this what you were meant to do? Are you living your calling? Are you living someone else's life? Are you just in, in the pathway, because that's what you chose a decade or two decades ago, and you just say, Well, I'm just gonna fulfill this, even though it doesn't fulfill me. And being smart about those transitions, entrepreneurs, and individuals, we will transition, and we will have these things. And I think that it's okay. And we shouldn't feel the need to make decisions based on expectations of others that maybe aren't that meaningful to us in our life.

Rick Mulready  50:48  
I think that's a big piece of what led me to this place over the years is, I was for so long, especially early in the business, like for the first four or five years, I was building somebody else's business. It was my business, but I was building what other people were saying, is a successful quote, unquote, business. And my perception, and my perspective, I should say, completely changed a few years ago, when we had a conversation. And you know, because everyone's like, Oh, you know, seven figures, and you've made it and you're an expert at that point. Like, it's like, you can't be an expert for the whole, you know, when you get a whole lot less revenue, but that's what the sort of the standard was, if you will, to be taken seriously, if you will, or, you know, it be in that the right quote, unquote, conversation? Well, you said like, well, how much do you need to? And I know, you talked about it here in the show a lot. How much do you need to live? That you and your family, if you have a family? What is that? What's that number, and sort of like the next layer is like, Alright, now in terms of, you know, if you want to be saving and investing and whatever, what does that look like? And then you have your terms. I can't remember what the terms are. But I thought about that. And I was like, well, that number is not seven figures at all. Yeah. And it just takes the pressure, I had this exact, I shared that your strategy with one of my partners that I work with, and they were experiencing the same thing. They had some life things happening some health stuff and reexamining their business. And that was the conversation and I could tell with them, like, they just relaxed as well, because it because they wanted to hit that seven figures, as well. And it's like, Alright, what's real? Like, what do we really need to be? If we want to be doing this as our to generate revenue? Like, what do we need to be living? And then the different levels from there, it just takes down that stressful hole, at least for me. 

Mel Abraham  52:58  
It does, it does. And I think that's the whole idea of being intentional and being taking the time to do that. And we lose sight of that sometimes. And that's think, listen. Now, let me ask you this. Are you is your show gonna continue? Or is there? Are you just your hands off?

Rick Mulready  53:16  
I am. So I published twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, and I decided to keep the show going. But just publish on Wednesdays. So I'm just doing one episode a week. And I've batched them out. We'll hear we'll hear from you. Still? Yes, yes. So I'm batched out right now the longest. And I've been doing a podcast since 2013. Now, so for 10 years. 700 episodes is crazy. Yeah, I had a podcast first I did 53 episodes of that show that I started the one I have. So been doing this a long time. And I've never been further batched out than I am right now. I am recorded through the end of August into September right now. And it's funny because I was I was just saying this to somebody the other day, I said, doing one episode a week is easy. Like I was able to be out like five months now. And they were like, well, yeah, you cut your work in half because you're not putting out two episodes. A week. So yeah, the show is going to continue. I just did an interview my last interview before the sabbatical for my show before this one. And they said after we stopped recording and she's actually one of my students, she said, I think that's really cool that you can that you're continuing the show during this time, because I feel like it's it's respecting your listeners, you know, like they're still going to hear from you. Each each week, because they come to expect it. But also even if I didn't have a new episode, even if I'm putting up you know best of quote unquote episodes with like a little, you know, Spiel or whatever in the in the beginning of it, you know. So anyway, yeah, that was something that was important to me, I wanted to continue. I didn't want that to, I didn't want that to lapse. But I also didn't want to do, I counted it out it was I forget how many episodes it was. I was like, I don't want to do that many episodes, but I will do one episode per week.

Mel Abraham  55:21  
So good. So but so as we close out, I want to make sure we'll we'll come up with your, with your show, and make sure that they're, they're listening to you. As you sit here on the precipice of this sabbatical, looking back at what you've been through, and speaking to a group of, you know, entrepreneurs and people trying to do things in their life, what, what are like one, two, maybe three things that you would leave them with? That are, you're going through, you've gone through, or you hope to be on the other side of this?

Rick Mulready  56:02  
I think on the other side of this, I mean, I'll be honest with you, I don't know what the business will look like after, when I come back, I have no idea. Maybe it will be the same. And maybe it'll be completely different. Like I again, I don't have any expectations. I don't know the answer to that. But that's one thing that I do want to try to figure out. And it's like you alluded to before, Mel, it's like, even if you can't take, you know, whatever, three months off, one month off, maybe it's just a weekend, maybe it's just like a couple of days taking a step back from your business and really thinking about is this business set up? The way that I want it to? Is it supporting the lifestyle that I want to be living? I think the bigger question to that, also, that a lot of people don't talk about that I didn't really realize until going through this process is like, are you though, is the way that the business set up? Are you set up emotionally, to be able to, I guess, like handle it. And I think that that's where I really struggled to be honest with you for because I love, I love coaching, I love helping somebody and diving deep. And I think that on a lot of different levels, though it got to a point where the emotional part for me because I put so much into it was getting the better of me, that makes sense. So I would say that's number one is if you can take a step back in any fashion, do it. Again, even if it's a couple days, I'd say the next thing is really try to pay attention to what's going on with you. How are you feeling about? You know, do you wake up jazz to do whatever you're going to be doing that day? Are you having fun with it? If you're not having fun with it, are there things that you can do to make it more fun or sort of re Energize? And, and also, I mean, I'll say four things, try it, like, follow what you are saying. And I'm not just blowing smoke here and saying this because I'm on your show, but like listening to you and the financial perspective and advice that you give. has, you know, completely helped me I mean, we like, even go down that path. But like you help me set up financially to buy our house. It's our first home. It's amazing on so many different, different levels. And so yes, we were set up financially to be able to take this break, I don't take that lightly. So that's so I would say that and then and then finally, the most important thing is don't don't wait to be spending time with and doing the things that you want to be doing and with the people that you want to be, you know, that are most important to you. Because as you said, like, you know, it's does this slow down and doesn't last forever. 

Mel Abraham  59:12  
So those of you? Yeah, this was this was such a good conversation, but I think more people need to have, yeah, more people need to be willing to have it. And I appreciate you being open enough. I mean, we when we set this up, we you know, we got on, said I don't want to talk about this. Yeah. And so I appreciate that. I mean, first it takes courage to sit back and say I want to do it second, it takes vulnerability to be able to go hey, I'm gonna talk about it. And and it also takes empathy to understand that other people are feeling it and not talking about it. I think it shows a lot. And so I I I appreciate you for for being willing to have this conversation on the show. This is all about out that Richard lifestyle when it comes down to it, it isn't about. It's about how you're living your life. It is how you experience your life and how you feel about your life. And if we're all about the money, and we have all kinds of money in the bank account, but we're not experiencing life fully.

Rick Mulready  1:00:19  
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that's not the case for me, by the way, where like, I have a lot of money in the bank that is just like, alright, something's either changed that I want to experience life more fully. So let's, let's do this.

Mel Abraham  1:00:32  
And well, and we will keep you on the financial side, we'll keep you on the right path.

Rick Mulready  1:00:36  
Yeah, I'm not worried about that.

Mel Abraham  1:00:39  
This is a step. It's, I think about it as, as we're climbing Mount Everest, there's those landings you you kind of take a break on, and you stay there for it. And then you strategize for the next the next peak. And I think this is and we all should be doing it. We all I think that not to go down another path. But I actually think when you do your planning for for the year, when you're sitting back and saying what are my goals for for the next year for the next 12 months? In there? You should be blocking out immovably blocking out time to present are you things that are important to you and blocking it out? I learned this long ago I we tried to step in, I try to do it every nine days we have it's not something extravagant all the time. It is just, it might be something simple. We put the phones away, and we're there with each other we can act in reflect and rejuvenating and all that. I learned it as a single dad, you know, because Jeremy I was traveling, I was speaking he didn't he was trying to wonder as a sexual gone. When am I going to see dad? Why don't we see Dad? Well, I created a calendar marked everything in red, where it was just me and him. And he knew the red zones on the calendar. That's all him. Yeah. And that any other zone on the calendar if you needed me, I would change. Yeah. And I think we need that in our lives. And you're demonstrating you're living proof. you're embarking on a journey. And I would love to have you on the other end of this journey. Yeah, on the show, to talk about what it was like what you learned, and what perspectives came out of it. Would you do that?

Rick Mulready  1:02:15  
100% Yeah, it's funny. I didn't even think about that. When, when I've been, you know, thinking about the podcast afterwards or what have you. But somebody said, yeah, I hope that you share what the experience was like. And I was like, oh, yeah, it's a good idea. So I, I scheduled in a podcast episode, you know, for the first week of August that so when I come back, I will, you know, yeah. Happy to come on here and talk about it for sure.

Mel Abraham  1:02:44  
Yeah, thank you, my friend for it is a sabbatical you're going on, but I know you and I'll be talking through it.

Rick Mulready  1:02:51  
No, yeah. 100% Thanks for the opportunity. Come on here and talk about it. I appreciate you man.

Mel Abraham  1:02:56  
All right. Well, thank you for listening to the Affluent Entrepreneur Show with me, your host Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabrahm.com/group. And I'll see you there.