Cut The Tie | Own Your Success

“If It’s Not a Hell Yes, It’s a No”—Krystal Popov on Raising the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

• Thomas Helfrich

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What if kids could launch their first business before high school? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with Krystal Popov, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and founder of FuturePreneur, a company that helps kids and teens ages six to sixteen build and launch their first business.

From corporate engineer to network marketing to commercial real estate and now youth entrepreneurship, Krystal’s story is about breaking cycles of fear, redefining success, and teaching freedom through ownership. She shares the ties she had to cut—control, fear of judgment, and the illusion of “safety” in corporate life—to build a business and a family that thrive on choice and impact.

About Krystal Popov
Krystal Popov is the founder and CEO of FuturePreneur, a hands-on program that teaches kids how to start real businesses from home. Based in Tucson, Arizona, Krystal is also a commercial real estate entrepreneur who operates over 20,000 square feet of coworking and retail office space. A former engineer turned business owner, she’s passionate about empowering the next generation to build confidence, creativity, and financial independence through entrepreneurship.

In this episode, Thomas and Krystal discuss:

  • Teaching kids how to own their future
    How FuturePreneur helps kids and teens launch real businesses with guided video modules, business plans, and peer-led lessons.
  • Why corporate “success” left her unfulfilled
    Krystal recalls sitting in a quarterly review meeting and realizing, “I’m climbing this ladder and I don’t even like the top.”
  • How network marketing built her confidence
    Despite early failures and judgment, it taught her the most valuable lesson: You can’t sell if you don’t talk—and you can’t care what people think.
  • Building real estate that buys her time
    Krystal explains how her coworking business gives her the freedom to start new ventures, travel, and raise her family without losing control of her time.

Key Takeaways

  • Entrepreneurship breeds happiness
    Studies and real life both show it: business owners report more fulfillment and autonomy than employees.
  • Failure is feedback, not final
    Every failed venture, from MLM to downtown coworking, became the data behind her success.
  • Debt can be a tool, not a trap
    Smart, asset-backed debt fuels growth—don’t fear leverage, understand it.
  • If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no
    The advice that reshaped how Krystal manages time, business decisions, and priorities.

Connect with Krystal Popov

🌐 Website: https://www.futurepreneur.com
🎁 Free Resource: Teach Your Kids to Dream (Check the website)
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystalpopov
📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystalpopov

Connect with Thomas Helfrich

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Cut the Tide Podcast. Hello, I'm your host, Thomas Helfrick, and I'm on a mission to help you cut the tie to whatever it is holding you back from success. As I always say, you have to define, though, your success yourself. If you do not, you're chasing some other dream that's not yours. And you also have a clue of what actually is holding you back because you don't really know where you're going. So define that success. Let's cut a tie. And today I'm joined by Crystal Popov. Crystal, how are you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you did it. Good job. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good. How are you? I'm delicious. Uh, and you.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm I'm wonderful. I'm wonderful. It's early in the morning here and I feel amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, take a moment. You know, introduce yourself, where you're from, what you do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, I'm from Tucson, Arizona. Grew up here, lived around the country a little bit. Um, my newest uh journey, I'm most most importantly, I'm a mom of three and a wife to a wonderful husband. Um, but I just uh started a new company called Futurepreneur, and we help kids and teens ages six through 16 open their very first business. So we give them all the tools and the plan to launch a company.

SPEAKER_00:

That is, I mean, that's pretty core to what we do. So this that's awesome. Uh so you're the audience listening here should probably resonate with this. Uh there are other agencies that do this, uh, and and there's a lot of free resources. So why do people pick you? What's the differentiator?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think we walk the kid through every step. Um, and it's really built by entrepreneurs. So there's there's books out there to give you ideas on what kid business to start. Um, there's a couple great companies that that do a good job as like a summer camp where they take the kid in and then they help them launch the business through the summer and they do a really great job. This is more at home, they get to experience different types of business. So our business plans take about eight hours from start to launch to make money, right? And the kid can stip stick with it. Uh my daughter launched a t-shirt, one of our t-shirt brands. And as you better believe everyone she talks to, she's sending them a link to their t-shirt store. But the idea is to really text different waters. So we have a, we you could be on a subscription or you can pick your plan, but our goal is to get people familiar, get kids familiar by the time they graduate high school with different industries. So we have a, you know, we talk about the trades, build a doghouse, sell it. We go through all the trades. We have video modules that really walk them through it from other teens. So teens are doing the visual model modules with the kids. You can truly stick your kid in front of our video modules and with our business plan, and they can launch their business.

SPEAKER_00:

I love this. That's I have a little, my my littlest is uh she has more cash than anyone in this family. Just she's 10. And because we make these little uh, you know, lip balm thingies out of pure like beeswax from Georgia, and we make all you know coconut oil and we just and and she'll sell them for two, three bucks, whatever. And I'm like, I absolutely love this business because it costs like 16 cents total to make the stuff. And I'm like, I really wish we could find a way to mark. And I'm like thinking, why not just go build her a site and just brand it? Yeah, because it but and she always just like so she's like, Hey, I saw this video. We live on a golf course. I can't afford to join it. It's like torture to watch it. Yeah, anyway, because I love golf, cannot afford that. Yeah, so but she's like, I saw this video where people are making well, they said six figures, whatever that means. It seemed like a lot to selling golf balls. Can we go get golf balls off the course? So every on the day closed, we go through one hole and probably find 50 balls, all worth four bucks or more each. And I'm like, now I gotta figure out where to go sell these things. But we have hundreds of balls, and I'm like, I'll I've saved 60 bucks a month if I ever want to, I'll never buy a golf ball again because of her. The point I yeah, kids with that mindset are so set for the future, it's not even funny. Like they are the ones that will be successful.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm telling you, all the studies that I've done and relating entrepreneurship to happiness. I mean, there's truly lots of studies that if you're an entrepreneur, you just had to be generally happier, right? You have more freedom, you have more choices. Um, and what do we want as parents over everything else is we want our child to grow up and be a value to the community and to be happy. So if you're not teaching entrepreneurship at a young age, Thomas, you are, but most people aren't. They or they don't know how that this is a must, right? And kids, you know how they grow. How's how old's your oldest?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh 15, 15, 13, 10 at this point.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, you're right in the sweet spot. But as they reach 14, maybe right around that 14, 15 age, you kind of lose them as you're not that they start looking to other people.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, like eight to five percent of your time is before age 12, 100%.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. So this like seven to 12, these five years is so precious and it goes by so fast. And that so that's where we started. My kids are in that age also, and it is so fun to watch. Um, I I'm an entrepreneur myself. I own the the businesses that bring me money. This one just launched that bring me money and give me lifestyle is mostly commercial real estate. So we we do co-working and executive offices suites and it runs itself. I have incredible employees, and um and and I can I can travel for seven days and get three or four emails. I mean, I have a really sweet deal.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's a business on like my marketing agency where I'm involved. That is a job, just to be clear. She just described a business. Note she travels, she's very little work.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what you have to cut to get there? Control.

SPEAKER_00:

I had to take your wife. It's also what you sell.

SPEAKER_01:

So there's a lot of yeah, true, but I had to like I'm okay here with control.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm fine with that. I I am I'm core to the strategies we do for my clients, but we keep clients three, four years because of it. So I'm like, I need to do there. We'll talk about that offline. I mean, yeah, I guess by the way, people, I interview people well. That's my skill set. All the other stuff, just take with the grace. I'm good at I'm good at this part. That's that's that's it. Talk to me. Okay, enough about me and how well I smell today. Um Chris, you're supposed to laugh at that. I mean, it it is my second interview of the day. It is your first. I need allier. Is your coffee broken?

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes my coffee You know, it it's super early, and I I've only had three sips, so guys, we're gonna take a pause here for a coffee break. Coffee break, coffee pause, everyone. Very good.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Uh how do you define success?

SPEAKER_01:

I think uh it's absolutely for me is choosing what you want to do at this minute, right? So if I want to take the afternoon off and take my kids some skating, I'm gonna do it. Right. So it's really it's really choice of of what your what your your energy goes to.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's captain a big uh I'll put that into the uh a very common answer is captain of your calendar.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Say what you want, when you want for them for the most part. You gotta you know get time.

SPEAKER_01:

And it doesn't mean we don't work, right? It's a hours, but I get to choose that. And now uh so because I have the the um commercial real estate, because I have the executive office suites, it gives me so much freedom to start this new venture and capital to start this new venture, right? So it's um yeah, it's beautiful, it's a wonderful life. And I haven't I haven't always been here. I've been in corporate. I was in corporate, I was an engineer, graduated as an engineer, so I went right into corporate consulting, was there for seven years climbing the ladder, uh doing well, but I knew after two years, I knew this.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, then exactly. So my my my question is like tell me a little more about your journey to get to where you are. Um, and then what was the major tie you had to cut to be able to achieve that success you just defined?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um so my journey was graduated from the University of Arizona in 2004, went straight into corporate. I was there for seven years. Um, but I remember very clearly I was like two, three years in, and I'm sitting, we we do like a roundup once every quarter. So we're in our roundup. There's about 30, 35 people in there, you know, all my colleagues and uh management at the front, and they're celebrating numbers and who hit their milestones and da-da-da. Numbers. Yeah, it was just so consulting, it was so number driven, right? So, and I'm looking around and I'm thinking, no one's happy, right? Like, I don't really want to be here. They're trying to like pump us up. No one's got a smile on their face. And I'm looking at like our team lead up front, and I'm like, I don't even think he's happy. Like he's going through a divorce, he worked a gazillion hours a week. And I'm like, I'm climbing this ladder and I don't even like the top, right? I don't even like the top. So what the heck am I doing? My mistake was I stayed there too long. I wish I would have pivoted earlier. Um, but I didn't, I I was scared to jump into the entrepreneur journey. And what actually took me there was network marketing. So I joined a network marketing, muscle of marketing company, and you know, went to the real rah-rah um and sat in a room and I'm like, well, at least these people are happy, right? At least they're excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

Is all that was.

SPEAKER_01:

You do most it is fun, fun, fun. Yes, it's fun. So, and I I I'm still part of I my old company still pays for my car every month. So that you can get to residual income there, but it is very, very tough. And um, it's not for everyone. It's tough. You can alienate family as this, it's a tough.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and let's let's dive in that just a bit, because that was the first buy you had a cut was corporate to affiliate marketing, which to me, from like a personal brand, like, oh my god, like what are what are my friends and family gonna think when I'm like, hey, do you want to buy some amway? Like, you know, like whatever. And and and nothing wrong with amway, but like that is such a brand, personal brand change, and people's judgment becomes like laser focused on you as what what is wrong with like uh maybe I'm personal, especially engineers, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm in an engineering world. They really don't get that one. No, they're like you're in a pyramid, you know. I mean, it was I got it all.

SPEAKER_00:

You're made of or whatever.

SPEAKER_01:

But I I am only friends with probably two people from that era, but the vast difference in happiness was was uh enough for me to jump. Like corporate was you know, talking about each other's boss, you know, getting cut out of numbers. It's just it's it was just no fun. It was drinking after work every day. I mean, it was unhealthy.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just a it's just a miserable. It didn't have to be, but it is.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know why. And maybe it's not all corporate this way, but I think a lot are. So I was like, I'd rather be in this network marketing world where people are at least happy. I went completely broke with the first company. You know, I moved to Chicago with them, went, went broke, um, moved back in with my mom. My mom was super supportive. That's one thing. She was she's been an entrepreneur her whole life. She's my inspiration, but um, but then um, yeah, so then I I knew I didn't want to stay in that forever either. So I had been part of some co-working spaces um in in cities that I traveled to. So when I came back home from Tucson, married, broke, pregnant. Um I said, I want to open a co-working space. And that was a big leap. It took us took us about a year and a half to kind of save up money to be able to, you know, start with a place. Um, and then I've expanded. I have over 20,000 square feet in Tucson retail called the L Offices.

SPEAKER_00:

Lease and release, basically. All right. So because that's a different model than buy and then you're a landlord or anything. Like, why would I want to do it? Um it changes your model.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're on our way, we're on our way to that too. Um I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, because you don't you don't need a big brand, you just need to sell to a small audience and keep them happy and give them. I I love that. I mean, it it and you're just your margin business at that point.

SPEAKER_01:

But most co-working spaces fail, and it's because they don't go big enough. Um, you can't really create community with 12 offices. So, like in the location I'm sitting in right now, we have 42 offices and 35 co-working desks. And I'm like 92%.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you discover that right away? I'm gonna rub you just because I think it's so interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm a numbers girl, so I just pulled the numbers, right?

SPEAKER_00:

And so I wouldn't have known that. I would have thought, like, okay, I just need to maximize my 12, but people are joining because they need a co-work. They need that community. And I I do I don't have that sense. I just need a space, possibly. Yeah. Yeah. So that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

I did you did see, did you discover that prior to doing it, or did you get this feeling of being a part of a coworking space and like why why do I want to go in here? I want energy, like, why not work at home, right? Because I want energy, I want to be around people. I mean, this is the network marketing uh personality style, right? That I got. So I wanted to be around people and we just didn't have it. But also the numbers don't work. So when you really look at a financial sheet, and this is kind of my I would say this is this is what m makes me a good entrepreneur in every venture, is I can just dive into numbers and really figure out whether something's profitable or not. But I knew the expenses didn't change much, the size of the space. You still have a staff member that's running the desk. You still gotta buy coffee, right? You still gotta, I mean, your kitchen expenses may go up a little bit, but you still gotta pay the internet bill, whether you have four offices or whether you have 50 offices, you gotta pay the, you know, so the the expenses don't change that much as you scale. And obviously your revenue changes a ton.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, I would like because your break-even ends up being about the same amount of people. Cause like even the office space additional to get to that, you might smaller the offices or there's ways to do it. Yeah. So I get I like listen, I wouldn't even thought about that. It's amazing. All right, so all right, so you got the tie. Uh, one was perception, one was just falling on your face uh to do this. And and it didn't sound like you had a risk tie to cut. It sounded like you were okay with the risk, um, though it's uncomfortable, but you took it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was okay with the risk. Um, you know, my I've watched my mom dive into things with little fear, and I just didn't have a lot of feel. I'm like, what's the what's the worst thing? I can go broke, right? Once you do it once, you're like, oh, okay, that's that's what that is, right? I mean, I have family members that would take me in if I needed it.

SPEAKER_00:

So I called it roommates that were older when they do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yes, yes. We were roommates, roomies. Um, so um, so I didn't have that fear. Um, but the what I did have is okay, here's what network marketing did to me. I don't care what other people think, right? And I used to care. And now I don't. So I've had to close a network. I've had to close a co-working space in downtown Tucson. It just never flourished. But I got a lot of publicity when I opened it, but I had to close it. It is what it is, right? So I mean, now now we're doing great things. We're in a we're in a good spot. We I was actually in a magazine Tucson to Business Tucson yesterday, they featured us um for our retail space, our co-working retail space. But so we're in a good space, but I didn't I like you have to not care what people think. And that is that's something you gotta give up.

SPEAKER_00:

It's huge. I mean, it's that's hard. It's hard. It's always creeping in on you. Uh I think people listening here are like the what you know, it's easy to not care what people think when they don't really know you. What you're describing is you can't care what your mom or your sister or your best friend from high school or your neighbor thinks. You have to care about what your passion is and what you're trying to accomplish. Uh because at the end, when you become successful, their their opinion of you changes. Like, oh hopefully. But even then, you don't care if you think I'm successful or not. It but that it that's the hard one of the people closest to you. And that's some of the hardest ties to cut are letting go. There's people who continually anchor you back because they're embarrassed because of you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And they're proud of me now. But you until when I was doing other things, they were like, eh, why did you give up that job? You know, you had a really good job. But the the the interesting thing is they come around, number one, but number two, you can use it as fuel because I won't stop and I wouldn't stop until it's done. So it took me opening different locations. Like I signed, I remember my husband was like, You're nuts because I signed another lease when my other one was failing. Right. So one of them's like, I'm not profitable, and I sign another lease. And I'm like, Yeah, but if this one's gonna go down, I gotta get it, I gotta get it done.

SPEAKER_00:

Now before Alan breaks.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. So you gotta just like you can use it as fuel. Like, I am not giving up until it's done. And same with future premiere. I mean, right now we're we've got curricula and video modules, but eventually it'll be an online sales platform, it'll be all be all be digital and it'll be a kind of a gamified thing. So I'm like, we're not done until this is going. We're gonna have events, but it's it's no question.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it your your idea with the so just when you were saying that, it actually brought back an idea, and I don't have the bandwidth to do it, but I was like, I mean, I really people pay so much for like coding camps. And it's like if you had an entrepreneurial school where your kids show up after school every day for a couple hours, parents would pay a ton for that of like going through a business and working your model and play, you know, and and you could have that would be like a very good franchise to anyway. So we'll take that one maybe.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, summer franchise. I yeah, like a summer summer or a fundraiser franchise. Like how many you could have a you could have a classroom where you have different pods, they each start their own business, but it fundraises back into the school, right? And they get a pizza party or whatever they get um once they hit those things, but that money goes back in the school. So we've thought like Apex Um, but that does a fun run or something, they franchised as well. So we we might we might do that in the future. What my goal is right now is to make sure it's effective from start to finish that they actually launch the business. And we have um six businesses up, and we've got seven more in the works of different types of companies that they can open. Um and and people aren't doing it the in the depth that we're doing it. Like they are going to make money, they're gonna learn along the way. It is it's just really cool.

SPEAKER_00:

I I love it. Uh thank you. All right, so let's continue your story. So you got the tie, you you got your success, and you've gotten how you got there. Uh the next part is the how. How did you go about the tie that we're focusing on specifically, or the the metaphor is not caring. You know, so maybe and this probably ties to a moment. So maybe what was the moment and how did you just work through it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, I got yeah, I got so if you cry, by the way. No, no, no, no. This is a funny story. Were it, I think it's Thanksgiving or Easter. We're in my mom's backyard. There's about 30 people there. And I'm talking, and this is network marketing, okay? So there's someone that I haven't seen in a while. So they're like, oh, Crystal, what are you doing? Here's my opening, right? Here's where I can talk about my company. Oh, I just started, you know, just started selling da-da-da. And I'm making money on the side and blah, blah, blah. And I hear like my cousin around the corner going, Don't as they walk away, my cousin goes, Don't talk to her about it. She's gonna try to rope you in, you know? And I should, and I remember thinking, I was so hurt that I remember thinking, this is what they prepped me for, right? Is you can't sell if you don't talk. Whether I was selling something for a network marketing company or I'm selling futurepreneur or I'm selling an office space, you cannot sell if you don't talk. And I'm like, just because I talked, he's pulling me down, right? This cousin of mine that I love. And I was done. I would from that point on, I said, I'm like it, it fuels my fire. I'm not gonna fail. I did very well in network marketing. It took me six years to get there, but I finally figured it out and did really well. Um, because I wasn't gonna stop until it was done because of what he said in my thing. So I'm like, I don't care what you say because I'm gonna prove you wrong. And that's where I started shifting. So then when it when that creeps back in, because it will, when something creeps back in and like, what if they talk about your you closed your business downtown, they're gonna talk about it in the newspaper, blah, blah, blah. And I creeps back in, it doesn't matter. I'm out there trying and I'm out there talking and they're doing nothing. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

So well, and it and you're and and I think that how is important because uh if you don't have that resilience to to pull through, you never cut the tie and you never get to where you're going. And and and this is so core of, I mean, this is a big one. Like people's perception of you holds you back from leaving, doing uh it in there's there's other ones that tie with it as well with lifestyle and some other stuff. But but that's uh very I'm proud of you just knowing you're a little bit here of because I know how hard that is.

SPEAKER_01:

It's hard.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, the ones you probably won't are your kids initially, but they usually look at you as wow, she's doing it. And they and and you they they take it as no, you're gonna fail. That's part of it, but that's just a lesson. And if they look at you like that, like they don't judge you, they just see you home, they see you around.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, my kids, my oldest is nine, so they don't really know. And it's part of why it started Future Impreneur. Like, I could have just, you know, eased, eased my, you know, collected my residual from the office spaces. I just renewed my lease, you know, we just expanded, and I could just ride this out. But I'm like, I want to, I want them to watch something, right? Because I got to watch my mom build a pool, a swimming pool construction company. She came from real estate, um residential real estate, and she's building a swimming pool construction company when I was in in high school, and I watched her do that, and it was so inspiring to me. And I'm like, I want my kids to be in this great, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like my one of my best friends does pool, and I see how broken that industry is, and I'm like, I'm like, I could win in this industry just for the fact that I can do project management and communicate it. Like percent.

SPEAKER_01:

I've watched my mom.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's all like everything else is just people digging holes and doing shit and getting it to code, but but customer interactions, because we're in the process of billing pool 15 months for a permit, really? Really? I know we're not gonna go down that path. You will I was blowing bottles and I think she was hoping I could take it over.

SPEAKER_01:

And I was like, my my husband, my husband's the best sales guy there. Like, he is he I had no idea that he crushed it. My high school boyfriend's actually the president. Super funny. Oh, that's fun.

SPEAKER_00:

Others good friends, but uh you shopping publics with pineapples upside down or anything like that. Conversation is taking a turn.

SPEAKER_01:

It's taking a turn. Where did it do? Let's go back.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's come back. I don't want your uh agents to put you on here to be like, well, the founding.

SPEAKER_01:

But entrepreneurs that are looking for something, or those of you that are like stepping out, I think there's two key things that I would say is number one, I knew that the co-working company would give me freedom. So look at someone who's doing what you're doing. And is that the lifestyle you want to live? You chose this lifestyle. You knew you were gonna be on, you were gonna be hand holding people through your process, right? And um, but that's you that's what you chose. That's what you wanted. I knew that I wanted to be home with kids. And so I had to choose a different life path. It's also why I couldn't do network marketing, even though I was kind of at my my top, is I'm like, I am answering phones and my kid was like, Mommy, why are you on the phone all the time? And I'm like, ding, I gotta pivot. So look at where someone has gone before you, where you're going, and see who's done it. And do you want their lifestyle? And that's just been key for me when I choosing choosing what I'm choosing.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, you're it's it's a good interesting piece because the first requirement is I just didn't want to work for anybody.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Now that I'm in the services business marketing, we're pivoting because I don't want to do services long term. I want to do something where it's more a faceless company, I'd say it that way, where it's a service, it's a problem. Um, I just happen to run the company, which means you can exit, which means anybody can do it. So, like those that model shifts over time that you might solve one problem that's the easiest way to do it, and then you're like, all right, let me solve the next one. Or like you said it's network marketing, but like listen, I think the real estate one's better because then I can still do residual, but not have to be there every day once it's sold. And so I I I think that uh recognizing that you're you're probably not gonna jump to real estate right away sometimes without the experience of you just go as fast as you can. Anyway, we'll come back to that. Um we'll come back to that offline. The uh the journey is happening for you. You have cut the ties, you've figured out screw you, cousin. Thank you. I love you, but thank you for that lesson. Though I I have a chip on my shoulder towards you now. Um maybe not. Um what's been the impact since that moment?

SPEAKER_01:

I think I put more pressure on myself to keep go, go, go, go. Um, so I've I've I've also had to learn to like, you don't have to grow. I just started this e-commerce company, right? So I'm like, I don't have to grow to 100 million in a year. So slow down. Um, the impact has been, I mean, the impact on my life is is been totally different, right? I mean, I've truly have some, I've have freedom that I've never felt. And I'm I can invest money in a minute, I'm in a really good space. But the impact on my um philosophy has really been it doesn't matter how long it takes, it just matters that you finish, right? So, um, and and it and it eases a little anxiety or stress. I mean, we all as entrepreneurs, we all have this a little bit of crazy in us, and in the middle of the night, that crazy comes out. I'm like, why isn't it there yet? We get impatient. And it's been like, it's it can happen. You're gonna go up and down, but it can happen for you. And you just keep going and you pivot and you pivot and you pivot and pivot until like you will get where you want to get if you don't give up, right?

SPEAKER_00:

The word pivot is almost like a it's not it's like a four-letter cuss word or five letter. How many are letters are in that thing?

SPEAKER_01:

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00:

Somebody who doesn't I had this this challenge with my wife sometimes because I'm like, it's not really a pivot, it's the evolution of what you need to do next. She's like, Yeah, I'm like, it's because if I stay here, we die. Um and it doesn't work. You're right, but to them, they're like, oh my god, you're unstable. Like, when we when are you gonna get to the revenue that you could have made working for somebody?

SPEAKER_01:

And have you has have you read the book The One Thing?

SPEAKER_00:

I haven't read that one. It's on it's like number six on my list as I'm working for.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know that I can't. That's just not me. Like, I'm like, no, no, no, I need three things. I not well, okay.

SPEAKER_00:

I all right. So what she's referring to is is the ADHD or in us. Now I am a director of ADHD this year. That's Mike Tide to Cut. And I will tell you what I have found is the podcast plus an agency plus uh something that some other stuff we do, they all work together. Yeah. And and so what was happening before, none of them really worked together, and now I'm I'm zoning in on how making those all work together. And so that three thing thing works, but it's all around um, you know, building a business lead generation and and getting getting out there to do it right. So so that is some truth to that. The the book that I love that's around that topic is 10x is easier than 2x by Dan Sullivan. That one really tells you to just go all in on the one thing so you can actually read that. 10x is easy, and I will tell you, it will change your perspective of how you look at your business. Uh yours is interesting because you've done a 10x on one and now you let it go, you can do it again. That's how you get there. So you're you're kind of in that zone uh to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

But you're and it's not Grant Cardone 10x.

SPEAKER_00:

This is no, no, this is this is Dan Sullivan, uh believe it's his name. Um and so anyway, what we that that'd be my book, even if that was your question later. Uh here, I have a question for you now. Um if you could go back in your timeline at any point, when would you go back? What do you do differently?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I wouldn't have stayed in corporate for as long as I did. So I would, I would have, after three years of there, I think I had enough experience on what it is um in corporate that I should have shifted after three years. And I stayed there for just shy of seven. Um and that's why I'm so passionate about teaching entrepreneurship at a young age, is I didn't I watched my mom, but I didn't really listen to her. Um, and she's been so great. She just lets me do what I want to do, even though she knows it's gonna fail. She's okay. She supports me every step of the way. She's amazing. But I, after three years, I would have, I would have left. I would have, I could have been a freelance, I was a software developer. I could have been a freelance software developer. I could have done, but I was just tied in the and I was spending money like you wouldn't believe. I was making such good money at the engineering firm, but then it was all going, I was lived in Scottsdale. So I'm like, I remember doing taxes at the end of the year, and my mom's like, you made this much, and your living expenses are this much. Where's the rest of it? And I'm like, not in my bank account. It's somewhere in downtown Scottsdale, right? So about that. So I just spent, spent, spent for, I mean, seven years. So um I wish I would have been taught entrepreneurship earlier and I wish I would have had a little bit more money sense. Um, because I was already into 30 before I started, I mean, before I started doing something.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, you know, it's it's interesting because you you're like, or at least I would have done it as a side hustle, right? Because it's like I would have started. Uh that sometimes, by the way, I think advice to give people out there. A side hustle sometimes keeps you interested in your job longer because you because you stop caring about it. And you might let's say you're making$10,000 a month gross. I assure you the$300 you make the first time on the side hustle feels better. Totally. It's like, oh my God, I made this extra money doing something. I can't believe someone bought this. And you're like, I and you realize later I could have charged$3,000 for that. That that's that's an that's an evolution.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's so easy for people to do that today. With all the tools, all the online tools we have, all the you know, AI and stuff, it's so easy to do a side news.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but everybody and everyone gets the technology, it still comes back to a very, you know, all the core things, problem solved, all it's so anyway. Yeah, it's it's easier. You still have to, anyway, the whole of our podcast, probably actually.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um if um if there was like a question I should have asked you today though, and I didn't, what what would that question have been?

SPEAKER_01:

Are we gonna do rapid fire after this or no? Uh well I there's one in your rapid fire that someone said, What's the but you said, what's the best advice that you've been given by someone?

SPEAKER_00:

And you know, I'll do rapid fire. I I was just conscious.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, we can we can end with this one. This is a good point.

SPEAKER_00:

I want to come back to it. I skipped it just every time if you're gonna call out my rapid fire, we're gonna have a rapid fire. But here I have a little variation on it, though.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

What is the worst business advice that you've ever gotten? Um I'm gonna hit you with the nubs.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't go into debt.

SPEAKER_00:

Woo. I hate debt. I will tell you. It puckers my butthole right up to hear the word debt. I'm like, mm-hmm, owing people money. Please help me work through that one quick. I know it's a rapid fire, but getting it. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Really quick, really quick. A 3%, a 5% on debt, if it's a small percentage on a loan or something. Um, as long as you have a map out of it, you and you well, are you are you willing to go all in? Debt can get you so much, right? So you've got to work your butt off. Now, um, yeah. So someone said, you know, like the Dave Ramsey, I just don't get. I now have like real estate um properties that pay me also. And it's like, but in 10 years, do you know what that real estate property is gonna be? So as long as you know, so I I'm all about going into smart debt.

SPEAKER_00:

So smart debt. So uh debt that's tied to an asset, I'm cool with all day because there's a math formula that works with that. Uh uh be taking the line of credit to go fund an ad campaign that might work, I really would say don't do that, people, because because unless you have um done it once before and an act is produced, I'd be careful of going into debt to do something that's on the risk side that doesn't have an asset base, because that's where you can get in trouble quickly. Um, because there's no path out if it didn't work. Yeah, that's where we kind of put up.

SPEAKER_01:

Debt for marketing is really tough if you're starting off, right? So it's like what companies do you hire? And you've gotta know, like, so so so futurepreneur specifically is I hire someone to do my PR. Um, and I probably could do it myself. But I'm also doing my own programming and my own um website and my own. So I'm doing the technical stuff. So you've got to pick one lane, you right? And then you can hire outside that lane, but you can't hire too much because you will end up spending a hundred grand in a year with your$15,000 coach. And so, but I believe in coaching. I've never gotten to where I've gotten without coaching. So I believe in investing in coaching, but you really have to be smart with it because you can spend$20,000 here,$20,000 there before you know it.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Credit card debt is not good. I'm talking low interest loans. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so I think that's a very big distinction because uh an asset-based debt, meaning like buying a business for cash flow is smart and or it's smarter because at least there's something behind there and you can set up a deal that make it make sense. Uh real estate, sure. Spending even spending your own, let's say savings, which is a form of debt that you should be paying yourself back as a return, is probably more acceptable than lending, you know, borrowing money for a risk or an idea that you haven't proven. Now, if if I have a marketing campaign that I've spent$10,000 in ads and it's produced$50,000 and I've done it several times, it might make sense to say, hey, could I handle$100,000 of volume if I put it in to go make 50x on that? That might make sense because the revenue from it would be phenomenal. And then you could go back to more of a cash basis if you really wanted to do it. The point is be careful with it in proof with small scale.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. Well, and small doesn't always try, you know, it's just be careful with that. All right. Um, here's my here's my one rapid fire of actually I'll give you an easy one first. Must-go-to book. What's the read?

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh. Okay, this is a little personal, but I read a book called Conversations with God. I was like spinning, spinning for a while on religion and purpose and in this phase of what am I doing in my life and what does life mean? Um, and I read Conversations with God and it really, um, and I'm I am Christian, but it doesn't matter what you are. Um, but it really um it really was good for me.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. I mean, you have to religion aside, faith is agnostic to that. It has to do to belief in something bigger and something bigger in yourself or something.

SPEAKER_01:

I I grew up Catholic and um and my kids are in Catholic school, so nothing against Catholicism, but I had a lot of like guilt and a lot of like rules, right? So I was like, and and conversations, God just kind of threw out the rules for me and said, Listen, you're you know, you're loved, right? You're loved.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's great. You know, it helps set the mindset that things happen for instead of to you. And um, and given what's going on in the world, like you know, the floods, like I mean, I don't know how those people saw that one ever. Uh but anyway.

SPEAKER_01:

I couldn't even get on social, couldn't even get on.

SPEAKER_00:

If three girls, yeah. It's yeah, yeah, me too. And it's like uh in they're at camp right now in the middle of Canada. So I'm like the point being is uh it's only gonna help you to have some kind of faith belief above, I think, in something beyond just yourself. So I I really applaud you for that. That's uh that's a that's probably one of the harder books to read because of where you are in life when that happened. So I I really do mean that sincerely. Uh what is a tie today that you're struggling to cut? It's a surprise question.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, this is what is the tie today? I mean, I I'm really working on that patience of not wanting it now. Um so I balance that. Um, you bounce I balance mom guilt, right? Because I want it now. So then I dive all in it before I know it, I'm at work for eight hours. Um, and so then I'm uh then I'm you know not with my kids and they're home for summer. And so really kind of tying that everything's okay. It's gonna do it's gonna happen when it happens. Your kids are okay, they're happy, they lie in other, you're with them most of the time. It's okay. And so really cutting that like real built-up pressure of um it needs to happen now. I'm really trying to cut that. It affects your sleeps, it affects everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's uh the the impatience of life, right? Where especially where you're like you see so much opportunity and you're like, I just cannot move fast enough. And you know, and I it it's it's it's maddening and it's frustrating and you feel like you're always behind. I very much so I identify with that feeling. It also makes you read books like Conversations with God, which that's that's a recent read. I can tell. I can understand that one. Yep. Um all right. I think finally, who inspired you?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh definitely my mom. Definitely my mom. She came from, you know, she had five, it was five, her and four siblings, and they were in like a two-bedroom house. And I have a I have an article clipping at she was the youngest real estate agent when she got her license at 18. Now it happens all the time. But when she got her license at H turn her real estate license, she was the youngest one in Tucson and it she was in the paper. And um, I've watched her, you know, she doesn't have life figured out. Um, she's been divorced twice, right? So there's an area of her life that she hasn't quite figured it out. I I learned a lot from, but um business, she really just grit and grind. She was in a man's world in the construction world, and she was they are scared of her. She just felt her own. And she's four, ten and a half. She's not even five foot. I'm telling you, she is mighty and amazing. So I'm very lucky to have her.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, it's like what Pablo Escobar, I think, had said something like the name of the lady, I can't. There's a whole show on it. Like the the one late, the one man I fear more is this woman name. It was like she has a famous quote from this this this other mob boss. I know it's he it's like true. Uh the truth is, I mean, from the era that your mom came through, uh, the women that made it that really they are tougher than anyone because of what they had to do to go through there. Like you have to have like nails tough, don't care, you cannot get under my skin because of where they are they so when she's looking at you going, I know it's gonna fail, but I also know if I say anything, it's it's gonna be my fault. So I'll be quiet.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the downside of what is uh the downside of it is um people are scared of her. And so like I'm like, your employees don't love you, you know, like she like she she has so much love in her, but she doesn't have a lot of compassion. And so she's like, You're sick and you didn't show up to work today. Like, you know, like here's what I did. You're you're having a mental day off, you know? And I was like, what's a mental day off?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's good. Is that a new thing? Mental days off because we need to get that for a hundred years, so you're you're gonna never go work.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, I I remember an employee coming to me and is like, Can I have unlimited vacation? And I'm like, wait, what do you mean? And she's like, Yeah, it's this new thing that's like it's kind of unlimited vacation. I mean, it's not paid, but you can take as many days off. And I'm like, well, then who's at the desk? Like, I keep giving unlimited days off.

SPEAKER_00:

We call that unemployment or entrepreneurship. Yeah, you can choose. You can choose. I want unlimited. Yeah. Some states you can't give unlimited because you'd have to actually give it to them. Um and and anyway. Uh different things. So, a what was the one question I should have asked today, though? I didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I think my one piece of advice that someone gave me, I'm gonna give this. If there's an opportunity out there, I look at opportunities all the time, whether it's buying a real estate or a or a business. I had one guy look at me and he said, and I'm and I'm pondering over it, and he goes, Crystal, if it's not a hell yes, it's a F no, right? Like if you're not like, yes, I want to be there, yes, I want to do that, yes, I want to go to this happy hour, yes, I want to go to this birthday party, or yes, I want to go on this vacation. If it's not hell yes, it's a no. And if you operate like that, your time management will get so much better.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's my saying no to stuff opens up a lot of doors to yes. Uh yeah, I that's uh well, you could apply that in ways that you're like, well, I guess anyway, that can get you.

SPEAKER_01:

Where are you going with this?

SPEAKER_00:

We don't have time for that because we're gonna thank you so much, Crystal Pop, for joining us today on uh I don't know the name of this show is even discussed guy. That's right. All right, shameless plug, who should get a hold of you? Where are they, and how should they do that?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, parents, parents, especially kids six to twelve, five to twelve. Um, you can go to our website. I have a freebie on our website, futurepreneur.com. That's teach your kids to dream. Um, so it starts with just those steps of you know, conversation cards, what conversations should you be having? What lunchbox notes? So that's a freebie that we do. So futurepreneur, futurepreneur.com. Um, or you can find me on social at Crystal PopOff. I'd love a follow.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for joining me today.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Unless anyone who made this point in the show, you rock. This is the first time you've been here. I hope it's the first of many. And if you've been here before, you've heard me say this a few times. Go cut a tie to something holding you back after you've defined what success is for you, because then you know what is holding you back from it. Thanks for listening.

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Thomas Helfrich

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