The Hidden Cost of Success for Entrepreneurs with George Rivera

What does success really mean if it costs you your peace, your presence, and the people you love most? In this powerful episode, Dionne Malush sits down with George Rivera, entrepreneur, father, and creator of the Buy Back Time Formula, to talk about the emotional wake-up call that changed the course of his life and business. After years of building success across direct response, e-commerce, real estate, and coaching, George realized that being cash-rich but time-poor was quietly pulling him away from what mattered most: faith, family, and presence.

Together, Dionne Malush and George Rivera explore burnout, founder pressure, delegation, time freedom, fatherhood, and the mindset shift required to build a business that does not depend on you for everything. This episode is an inspiring conversation for entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders who want more than growth on paper. It is for those ready to reclaim their time, strengthen their family life, and redefine success in a way that actually feels meaningful.

Connect with George here:

Website: https://buybacktimeformula.com/home

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-rivera-53b3296/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgerivera77

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgerivera1977/

Transcript

Hook And Introducing George Rivera

SPEAKER_01 0:02

What if the success you worked your whole life for was quietly spilling the moments that mattered most? Today's guest is George Rivera, a father first founder and the creator of the Buy Back Time Formula. After three decades in direct response, e-commerce, real estate, and coaching, George realized something most entrepreneurs don't see until it's too late. His biggest wins on paper were costing him his presence at home. A promise to his dying father, don't miss Leo's games like I missed yours, changed everything. Today, George helps seven and eight figure, cash-rich but time-poor entrepreneurs buy back 10 to 20 hours a week, build companies that can run without them, and lead from a place of faith, clarity, and presence instead of burnout. This conversation isn't about hustling harder, it's about building a life that actually works. Welcome to the show, George. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Thank you, Dion. How about yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I'm doing good too. And I feel I feel some of this as an entrepreneur myself when my husband had a liver transplant seven and a half months ago, and I didn't go to the office for four and a half months, not one time. So, and if I hadn't had a good, solid foundation, we probably wouldn't have made it. We probably would be out of business. So I feel this today, and I'm glad to have this conversation with you. So, my very first question I always like to ask: if someone only knew you by your resume, what would they completely miss about who you really are?

The Promise That Reset Everything

SPEAKER_00 1:21

They knew me just by my resume, by my my work resume, I'd say. Yeah, they they might miss out on maybe some of the generosity. I try to be a generous person and try to be a giving person, try to see where there's a need and then sort of fill in that gap. That's kind of a hard thing to uh you know to pick up from a resume. So I'd say that. I'm very much uh a family man. I try to pour into my my children, especially my son, as much as I can. And and that's something you don't see on a resume. So yeah, I think the the family and and you know charitable aspects of it would be something that you probably wouldn't see too much of.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, both of them sound amazing. And you know, it's it's such an honor to be able to give back to other people and help other people. It feels so good. So I want you to take me back to that promise you made your father. What shifted in you that day in internally, not just strategically?

Success On Paper Absence At Home

The Coach Call And First Shift

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, it's uh interesting. Um, I have a little bit of kind of sort of how we got to that point to sort of connect all the dots. But so, like in in in middle school and high school, this is back in the late 80s, early 90s, back when the dinosaurs used to roam the earth. I played in basketball. So played in athletics, and out of about 40 games, my dad only went to one of those games. And um, you know, as a young kid, you're kind of like confused, like, why isn't my dad here? Because like all the other dads are here. And I remember like I'd score a basket and I'd look to the stands and I'd see like the empty stands, cue the sad music in the movies. And then um, my friend or my uh teammates would score, and dad's cheering them on, and here's your Gatorade high five, and like pat on the back. And and I remember looking at another dad just loving on his kid, and I was like, Man, I wish that was my dad. And that would have crushed my dad to hear that because he was a good man, he was a medical doctor, a hard worker, essentially gave his his life to his career and um always gave us a great lifestyle, like always had nice homes, cars, and and trips to Europe. But when I needed him the most, he wasn't there. So, fast forward 20 years, this is now 10 years ago, 2015, and he's starting his uh 40th year in his medical practice. And shortly into the year uh, you know, there's this phrase uh God laughs at man's plans. And and so shortly in in the beginning of that year, he was diagnosed with cancer. You know, he thought he was gonna have this long run ahead of him. You know, his parents, my grandparents had just passed away a couple of years prior in their mid-90s in their sleep and good health, but just like die one, you know, one win in their sleep, and the other one kind of died of old age. It's like, sign me up for going out like that. So my dad's like, Yeah, we got a good run, I've got good genes. And and of course the diagnosis hit. And he was given like six to nine months to live. He actually made it to 10 months. And a couple of weeks before he passed away, that's when he said those words. He said, Don't miss Leo's games. I miss too many of yours. And so when he said that, it hit me like a like a ton of bricks in a couple of different ways. You know, first it was like flashback to that childhood that I thought I'd suppressed. I thought that was like long gone. And it was nice to know that that that pain sort of didn't go to waste. I didn't know where else to kind of put that, but that was like nice closure. And then the other thing was like, oh my goodness, I'm my dad all over again. I'm doing the the you know, the nice homes, cars, and trips to Europe thing, but I'm not there present for my family. And and at the time my son's 10 months old, he was born around the time my dad broke broke the news, my son Leo, and I'm already like blowing it, and missing, you know, he's kind of learned how to talk and and walk and all the first firsts of life at that time, and you know, depending on my wife to send me pictures and videos and stuff. And when he said that, I just remembered thinking, man, I I didn't enjoy that as a kid, obviously, and I'm repeating that. And and that's when I was determined to not continue to be repeating that. And so he he lovingly agitated inside of me that I can't keep going this way. And so his biggest regret in life became my biggest mission in life. But first it had to be for me, and I had to like get out of that that that cycle essentially. But I'm like, okay, well, I'll figure it out tomorrow because I'm working 16-hour days. I, you know, and then tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow becomes three years, and I scale my business to 20 million dollars that year. I have this money printer and I press a button, it spits out money. And as long as I'm not buying helicopters every day, I should be set for life. And so, so yeah, that was a great thing to sort of you know be able to accomplish as an entrepreneur. But on the flip side, on the family side, was hating life. Everything like depended on me. I was just waiting for the shoe to drop. I had the world's worst org chart. Imagine me at the top and then 40 people, you know, just in one line beneath me, and I'm delegating down and it bounces back up to me like a boomerang. And instead of properly taking the time to train them, I'm like, I'm just gonna do it myself because it'll be quicker. I'm essentially robbing from the future when I do that. I'm also training my team to depend on me and not do what I'm paying them to do. And so my breaking point came in the summer of 2018 when I'd emailed, I mean he's a dear friend now, but at the time he was, you know, my coach and my mentor. And I I um I emailed him because he was in in Europe for the week and I didn't want to interrupt him. He told me, I'll be back next week, we'll pick it up then. And I was like, okay, uh, so I'm just gonna email him to get this off my chest so I can vent, and then I'll get back to the grind and finish at midnight and pass out on my office desk or something. And uh, so I I remember because I, you know, as I was putting together, you know, what I'm doing now, I I went back to research those emails and and I said, There are just some days I hate this business, I hate this and that. And I don't use the word hate lightly for when I say it, it like really has meaning. And so kind of brought me back flashbacks of wow, where I was in that time. And I was like, But just hit me back next week when you're back in the States. Uh, I'll, you know, I'm I'll power through till then. And he called me like 20 minutes later. Um, obviously he was reading it on his phone, and uh, it's like midnight in Rome, afternoon here in the States, and uh it was like a two-hour phone call. He's like, This can't wait for next week. We need to talk right now, and to sum it up in a couple of sentences, it basically was like, stop doing what you don't like doing and keep doing what you like to do, like what you're good at. And I'm like, Okay, 23 years in business, and I finally clicks. I guess I'm a bit of a late bloomer, but better late than never. And so, um, my expertise is like sales, copywriting, sales, you know, sales funnels, marketing, recurring revenue, all the fun uh money making aspects of online marketing, not the boring stuff, merchant accounts, customer support, paying invoices, like important, but it shouldn't be the same brain doing both. And so that was the the evening I should say that the the blueprints for the buyback time formula began. Although it wasn't called that, it is like I didn't know what it was, it was like save my life formula at the time, and then uh started implementing the frameworks that got me out of of my working sometimes as many as 90 hours a week. To then the pinnacle of the transformation was two and a half years later, and it could have been shorter, but as entrepreneurs, we grab onto these things like nobody else can do it but me. So I had to like it's almost like a leap of faith, like, all right, let this go. And it wasn't like magic or wishful thinking, it was actual frameworks and a process. And so the pinnacle of that a couple two and a half years later or so, the business more than doubled to nearly 50 million dollars. And I was living a semi-retired lifestyle. I was working no more than 30 hours a week. I didn't miss any of Leo's games, like my dad asked me not to. But when he said don't miss Leo's games, it literally meant don't miss his games, but also like don't miss out on his life. And so, you know, he's homeschooled, so he travels with us everywhere. We buy real estate in different states, and I taught him how to negotiate real estate at eight years old. Uh, pretty much like throw him into the fire. We're looking at a property, and I'm like, this is a teachable moment. And I told him, Here's what you tell the realtor, and uh, all right, go go and tell him and we'll debrief later. And so, very nice, teachable moment, even to current day. Like he's 10, almost 11 now, and he's got his own podcast. And so, yeah, yeah, because you know, AI is sort of like disconnecting things, and he's all about like we need human connection, not AI and the robots and all this stuff. So, I'm like, okay, good, keep keep going with that. And so, so yeah, and over the last two to three years, I've had a number of friends and peers in different circles um just tell me, like, you need to teach this stuff. How are you able to do all this? And I'm like, Do what? And they're like, Well, you're traveling, you're making money, you've got this business, and and you're always just on the move, but you're pouring into your son, and and and seems like you got it all together. And I'm like, Oh, I appreciate the insight or the the observation there, but like I'm I'm a doer, I'm not a coach. And um, so I struggled to figure out how to do this, and and then I kind of like parked the idea. And then over the last, I don't know, six, seven months, the whole concept of buying back time and implementing frameworks to free you up from being the bottleneck to then doing whatever you want with that time. But I'm a you know, family first father, first guy, so that's gonna resonate with people like me of 10 years ago, cash rich time poor, so that the extra time that we buy back, we give it to our family and and and have that presence. Cause like I just imagine all these these kids, and and of course I'm I'm a man, a boy, or was a boy, so I can picture the boy saying, Where's my dad? Like, what why isn't he here with me? You know, and and every son needs the approval of the father and you know, attention and approval of the dad and and correction when when it makes sense, as opposed to being raised by you know iPads and iPhones, which is the case with with a lot of kids. And so I'm kind of doing it for the kids, but more practically speaking, it's it's just for the trans founder who thinks that, oh, I'm the only one that can do this and there's no other way. So I'm here to say there there is another way. I know I just threw a lot out at you, so wherever you want to pick it up from there.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Wait, the first thing I wanted to ask you is do you have an extra one of those money printers?

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, it's getting it's at the shop right now, but I'll let you know when it comes out. Maybe I can clone you.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

I love that. That was it was great. So, in all seriousness, that I guess that's the time when you decided that the cost was becoming too high, right? The cost of all of this. They have the money, the momentum, the growth. You were doing all of that, right? And then all of a sudden you realize that. So when you see founders, a lot of them sense the tension. They sense the tension inside of them. They know that this is happening, but they ignore it. Why do you think so many successful people wait until burnout or loss, forces of change?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, it's that's a good question. Uh, and and I was one of those. So yeah, I I I don't know. I I feel like sometimes it's like you feel like you have it all together until you feel like you don't. It's tough to sort of self-identify when you're heading down that trail. I feel like had I heard somebody talk about it, I probably could have pointed to some signs that, like, oh no, I'm heading in that direction. So yeah, that I I wish there was a way, and and maybe there is, but to sort of pick up on those cues and and those signs. So, like one of the things that that I've I've been telling people these days too is like kind of like one of these signs is like when everything is quiet at home, you could mistake that for peace. But uh, like it, like in my case, it's like you're training your family that you're not really available, even mentally available. Um, you know, or if you're you know you're so committed to work and and on occasion you commit to like a like a family thing, but you know, like like work. Like if I schedule something and most of us and we schedule something like a zoom call, we we are on that zoom call unless we get like hit by a bus, and I haven't been hit by a bus, so we're good there. But on the uh on the family side, and again, I'm guilty of this when we schedule something in, it's like okay, it's in the calendar, but it's tentative. Like the second something important comes up, that just gets moved off of the off the books like nothing. And so it's a bit of a mind shift and even an identity shift that you need a tree, and that's what I advise on. Like, once we put it in the calendar, like it's as good as any any business commitment that we're making, and and that's how you regain the trust of your family if if it's already been fractured. And so, yeah, so it's it's trying to pick up on on the cues if you can. I mean, another thing is you know, most women are thinking about divorce and leaving their husband for two years before they actually do it. And so I know uh a lot of people who who might be in that situation, like there's still time to turn it around if if if there's a little bit of that family turmoil because you've you've sort of trained them that you're yeah, just give me five minutes means it ain't happening, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Yeah, that's I didn't know that statistic. Scary. Yeah, yeah. You have time. I mean, two years is a long time. We could fix it. Do you really fell in love in the first place for a reason, you know? And if and you're right, and you know, I'm guilty of this all of what you're saying because I remember back in 2015 and my husband and I, we we had the we weren't married yet, and I was working so much. And so I'll put it into perspective. I I was a real estate agent, then now I own the brokerage. So when I was then, I was closing about 78 transactions by myself. The average agent closes now today about 12. So I was doing that many transactions and like I had like horse blinders on. I didn't care about anything. I just was focused on getting as many transactions as I could. And then what so my husband and I go through some horrible stuff together, and then all of a sudden I rupture my Achilles and I couldn't walk or drive for 12 weeks. So I had no choice but to settle down, right? And to really look at everything. And then, you know, following that we worked through it. We ended up getting married, and it's been amazing, and we've been through a lot together. And when I'm thinking about you talking about your dad, and my dad passed, it's been two years and two years and two months, and I I miss him so much. And you know, oh man, if I I said this just these exact words today, I'd give up everything I have today for one hour with my dad.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Oh my goodness, that is such a yeah, no, that one hour.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Because I could, you know, I can make all this back. I can figure it all out. I can get a new house, I can start over from scratch. I can't get that hour back.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

That that hits home hard. Yeah. Well, that's very in a much in alignment with some of my messaging where it's like by the time we're like, you know, up in our years, we would give all the fortune that we made, and quote fortune, to to sort of like, you know, everything we abandoned family-wise to get here and and and make all this money. We would give it all back just to have a few moments that we could have had had we just been aware, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

And so I had a idea when and you know, it's one thing we never know when, when when when it's gonna be our day, right? And so and it's for me, that's hard because I I I don't like knowing what's the surprise gonna be. Like, am I gonna be suffering? Am I gonna go fat? Like, I don't want to think about that. So, but I I also if I knew what I know today, if I knew that he was going to die, I would have did more, even though I thought I did enough, but when it's over with, you never do. You don't ever think you did enough.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah, no, that's uh yeah, that's such a uh deep uh and such a personal feeling there. But yeah, I can totally, totally relate to that. And and I know that we all, you know, we all wish we could have done more, could have done better. So yeah, we just we need to find that peace in our heart. I I believe that comes from God and just turning it to him, being like, hey, help me with this, because these are some some emotions I I need help with. Yeah. So I I don't know. All I can say is I've I've been there and and felt that.

SPEAKER_01 15:29

Yeah, I'm sure. And I hope I I hope people don't have to feel and I hope they hear us and they go and just do it, do the things that they want to do and and live a life that they want to live because I'm exhausted mentally and physically and emotionally. These last three years have been so hard. But every day I get up and I'm still happy and I'm trying hard and I'm trying to be more successful and I'm creating a new business and I'm you know operating with 200 people in a company, it's a lot. Yeah. But I think I'm running from grief, and that's what I'm doing. I'm filling up my whole life with things so I don't have to deal with it.

Winning Means Not Missing Moments

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, yeah. That that is uh a coping mechanism, and and yeah, I mean, that's just naturally that's like a survival tactic for us. It's like, let's get away from from the pain and and let's put things in front of us so that we're you know, we feel productive. And I you know I'm not a not a professional in these situations, but I I can totally relate.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

So let's talk about winning. So, what did winning mean to you before and how do you define it today?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was young, and and this was kind of engraved in in me from my father, is like, so we like I said earlier, we we lived a pretty nice lifestyle, and and I remember him telling me early on, I was like, if if you want to maintain this lifestyle, you've got to work hard. Um, and he'd, you know, he'd sit me down as a I don't know, maybe eight, nine, ten years old and say, look, um, we're you know, very blessed family, and there's a lot of other people that aren't like like we are, you know. Like I remember we had some some friends, uh like a friend of mine, like in first grade, and and their parents met my parents, and and we go eat at a restaurant. They're like, Oh my gosh, this is awesome! We can only do this like once every other month, you know, and our family, like we go out to eat anything night if we want to, you know, and so that's when he had us sit down and said, you know, first be humble and we're very blessed. And then secondly, like you're gonna have to work hard one day if you want to maintain this kind of lifestyle, just kind of like planting the seed early on. And that's when I that that's what like I always had this mentality of, you know, if you want to be successful, then that's gonna require sacrificing your family and being absent from home. I don't know that my dad literally meant that. I really don't think he was trying to convey that because I don't think anybody like sets out on purpose to like, hey, abandon your family or anything like that. But uh, that's the message that I took in, and then that's what I saw growing up is uh yeah, you want to be successful, it's gonna, it's gonna cost you everything else. Which obviously that's family is a huge part of that.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Yeah. So what do you what do you define it as today?

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, today I I I define it as if you're not missing those moments, basically. You're able to pour into your family. Um, and I just use my son, for example, for the story, because like my dad called out Leo by name. So uh for me, it's like not missing his games, not missing his moments, including even today. I'm I'm doing some work and he's like, Dad, you want to throw the ball a little bit outside? And my initial instinct is is sort of to be like, Let me just finish this because it's hard to get back. Like once you're like in the zone, it's hard to like disconnect, come back. Where was I on that email? Or and then I had another five things I was about to do. And so it is kind of nice to be able to like knock it out and then be think like you're mentally done. Although you kind of never reach that. So I realized that you know what, I'm gonna go and play with him because a couple of things. If I do that enough, which I I haven't done, thankfully, but I I would be training my son that you know, quit asking me because I'm working. And then at one point I'd be like, Oh my gosh, I miss him asking me. So it's almost like self-inflicting wound there. And then the next thing is even if I do play with him constantly, that there'll be a time when he's just like grown out of that, throw the the the ball with dad phase, you know. It's not it's like he's gonna be 20, still throwing the ball. I mean, I hope he will be, but you know, that's that's a phase that he'll just naturally grow out of. So yeah, I I want to get to my my old age when I'm reflecting back, and I think we'll all have little moments. I wish I could have done that, wish could have done that. But I want my feeling to be like, you know what? Every time he asked, I did it. And so, like, I I'd have to nitpick to think about things. And and if at that point, then I'm like, okay, I think I'm I did it pretty good if if I'm now nitpicking.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yeah, I love that.

Eliminate Automate Delegate With Ownership

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

So let's talk about the buyback time formula. So when people hear that, buyback time, they assume it's delegating, right? What do most entrepreneurs misunderstand about time freedom?

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Yeah, so it is much more than that, and and delegation is a process, um, as are other things. So it's really just a little piece of an overall process. But yeah, it it's about uh when you get your time back, you you can choose to put it wherever you want. In my case, you know, family first, father first uh uh perspective. I I want to give it back to my family so that I can make the impact that I I was born to make, so other men can make the impact that they're born to make. And this will have like a generational impact. It's not just, you know, done at the next level, you know, because we we often repeat, you know, for better or for worse, the habits of our parents. And so the goal is to to have Mink Founders aware, okay, you've put in your season of hustle. That's why you are now cash rich, but you've become time poor because of this founder prison that you built yourself. And so now we got to bust you out of that prison. And it's gonna take an identity shift. And yeah, you you have to start with identifying the things that you're doing that you shouldn't be doing, and then there's only three things you can do with those tasks that you shouldn't be doing. Obviously, the other one is do them. So we'll table that. But the things that you don't do is either eliminate, eliminating things that don't move the needle, um, automate. Obviously, with AI allows for automating plenty of things, and delegation can also fit under that. But then delegation is its own standalone thing, but you delegate with ownership as opposed to just, oh, here, do this, and then it just boomerangs back to you, like it did for me when I had 40 people. Because I was essentially hiring people to do things, not really showing them what the outcome looked like, not really transferring ownership. And I ended up having to complete the job for them. The proper way to delegate is you do delegate with ownership, give them the ability to improve upon the process if they can make it more efficiently, but then also show them what completion looks like. And then there's a process of essentially properly delegating it through like an SOP. We've got all this technology, like through Loom videos or screen shares, and AI can sort of help us make these beautiful SOPs. Hand it off, make sure that they understand the task, and then I give them like 10 minutes. All right, review it, let me know. I'm I'm here standing by. And then if they say thumbs up, we're good, then you own it. I should never ever ever see that task again. It should uh you completely own it, you've got the liberty to improve upon it, unless like a vendor changes or or there's a significant tweak to the process that we need to update it, it should be completely off my plate. And so doing that uh across many different things that I should not have been doing is how I bought my my freedom back essentially.

SPEAKER_01 21:48

It makes sense because if I had to if I hadn't let go in you know in March, whenever the transplant was there, if I hadn't let go and I had to be a part of that, all of what I would have missed in the recovery and all of What I would have I could I mean, he could have gotten hurt really bad, you know, if I had just had to go to work. What if I had to just go to work because I couldn't delegate or or like you said, have them do it and not look at it again, not have to be responsible for it anymore. It's out of my hands now. And trust. And I had to trust them a lot. And so, you know, it's something new to me because I never I would never let go before like that. And it was hard. But now, since then, I've learned so much more about letting go. Now it doesn't say I don't sit in front of this computer more than I should still. You know, because I actually like it, but I know that you know the time is so precious. And so if I was a founder, a control-driven founder, like I am, by Lem Gig Veter, what's the real reason they don't let go and how would you help me through that?

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah, that's a good question. I'm just going back to my days. Like the last thing that I let go was, you know, like some of the uh like the wiring funds to certain vendors. Of course, the smaller regular bills, no problem. But at the time when I scaled my business from just in, you know, in the lower seven figures upwards to$20 million, like your business is growing really, really fast. And the infrastructure uh should really be able to support that volume. And it really, really didn't have the proper kind of overall management to support it. And that's when everything changed. And so one of the last things that I gave up was paying the big vendors because it is performance-based marketing, which just means, you know, if they send me a sale, they get a set amount of money. And it's up to me as the as the owner of the product and the offer to make sure that that sale generated more revenue than what we were paying out. And so that type of business model uh and kind of like arrangement is is amazing for businesses that are scaling fast, but it's also like ripe with fraud opportunities because they could say, Oh, we sent you a thousand sales and and then they really sent us 200. And so, like, it's kind of like their word versus ours, except we we have technology to prove and and like validate sales, but it's just a a it's a big time sub kind of a process, and you also have to have like the right type of talent to know how to like validate that stuff. And you know, looking back, I just didn't take the time to properly train somebody who was, you know, competent and well paid enough because you also don't want to pay somebody too little for such an important task. Like, this is the type of task that it could be a six-figure mistake on a payment if uh if you get it wrong, and and that can you know hurt cash flow in a bad way, just making one small mistake. So, yeah, I would say um giving up kind of those bigger vendor payments was was like the last thing that I held on to. And so um, I took the time, I created training on showing them how to validate it, and then you know, I spot check them, so like do it, and then when you're done, let me just sort of spot check to make sure. And then if you did that a few times, and then I was like, you know what? Time to take the leap of faith. I need to get my freedom back. And this, this is you know, that this is the process of getting your freedom back. And is it a risk? Obviously, there's nothing in life that tarries no risk, right? But we have to like you gotta compromise somewhere. So, in order for me to get my sanity back, it required me to believe and trust in the process that I I put in place. I believe in the frameworks. Now I have to believe in the person doing it. I validated that and that gave me the confidence that okay, I can I can back up and I could still like come in and do the random audit here and there to make sure it's going well. But yeah, that was like the last thing that I gave up and the most stressful part, but thankful to say that it continues smooth to this day.

Faith Rest And Purposeful Leadership

SPEAKER_01 25:20

That's awesome. It's because of probably this next question because you speak openly about faith and fatherhood, topics that many business leaders avoid. So, in that, in all things, how has faith shaped the way you now lead, decide, and rest?

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah, I mean, faith is is huge. Um, I know some people like ah, faith and blah, blah, blah, this, all this other stuff, but like faith is like the main thing. Like, without my faith, I'd be like, oh my gosh, like what the heck are we here for? Like, what's the purpose? And and where can I find hope in anything? Like, my goodness, like, uh yeah, I I don't know what I would do without my faith. You know, I was, you know, raised Christian in my my early days, and then you know, go to college and you sort of get the sense of like I'm on my own now, and let's see, you know, bumping my head around a little bit, trying to figure things out. And over the last 12 to 15 years, I'd say I've kind of circled back to my my faith in a pretty strong way. And, you know, uh, like I said, I was raised Christian and and came back to to Christianity in a very firm way. But in my in my earlier days, the way that they sort of talked about Jesus was, and it was in a respectful way, but sort of like, there's Jesus, there's Santa Claus and the Easter bunny, you know, they're all kind of these mythical characters. And what brought me back to to Christianity full circle, like I'd never say I renounced my faith, but it kind of got watered down, you know, and um what brought me back was just more from a logical perspective first, and then the emotions came after that. And I was like, my goodness, like when when you realize all of the prophecies in the old testament that point to the new testament, and um as well as 400 plus eyewitnesses saw Jesus' resurrection, like post-resurrection, it's like that's that like well exceeds the one to two eyewitnesses of journalistic standards. So there's no historical debate about whether Jesus rose from the dead or not. That's like a historical fact that you can you know argue and debate anything else that he might have said, but so like when he said, you know, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father but through me. I'm like, he's either right or he's wrong. There's no like let's read between the lines there. And so that that really gave me a confidence that if he defeated death, then everything else he said, I'm just gonna believe because that's kind of hard to do, you know, it's kind of hard to defeat death. So I'll I'll I'll believe everything else. And he he you know, he he taught us how to pray and how to have have a faith and confidence and to be anxious for nothing, but give him a request and he'll give us the peace that surpasses all understanding. So, like I just came back full circle to that, and that's what I hang on to today. And my my hope and prayers others get to experience it as well. But uh, I know I kind of went off the rails on that. I don't know if you want to I love it.

The Legacy Question For Leo

SPEAKER_01 27:47

I love hearing everyone's everyone's thoughts about it. It's it's beautiful what you said. So thank you for sharing. So this I think is a very important question for you. If Leo was interviewed someday, what do you hope he'd say about how you showed up?

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Yeah, well, interesting. He actually just made a little short for his YouTube channel and um he he kind of like made a little promotional video saying, Yeah, my dad says people were uh cash rich, time poor. He used to be that, but grandpa told him not to miss my games, and he's been there for me. So he kind of has already said that. But yeah, I believe he'd say, you know, my dad's always there. And and it's interesting, I have a little kind of before and after mini story here. So, you know, one of the best ways to get a child's idea of what they think about you is just like draw your dad, for example, you know, get get like a four-year-old to draw to draw me, essentially, my son. So I remember he drew like me with a with like a laptop, you know, it's because you know, dad's always with his computer, he's always working. And then the kind of like like a year and a half ago, I had a friend come over to our house and you were talking business, and and you know, then he's like talking to my son, and and he asked, uh, my son asked my friend, like that whole like the computer thing was like long gone. He asked if I even work because of this whole semi-retired lifestyle. So that's kind of like a little bit of a full circle that I experienced there. Obviously, over the last year, he's seen me work in the sense of like putting this book together and talking to clients and and doing podcasts. And he even got so inspired to start his own podcast. I just opened the door for him and he ran through it. I'm not, you know, trying to be like, hey, you're doing a podcast. And I've got like 40 or 50 people, like high-level business people committed to being on it. And it's a serious podcast. Like he he'll ask the occasional question, you know, that'll get the inner child of people out, like what's your favorite flavor of ice cream or something, uh, or your favorite childhood memory. But one of his main questions is, you know, he'll say something like, you know, I'm 10 years old. Imagine if you were talking to the 10-year-old version of yourself. What's one thing you would tell me or tell your 10-year-old version that you wish you knew so that you could have like avoided or sidestepped maybe a major mistake or challenge that you had in your life. And, you know, like you get people pouring out their gold and their wisdom. And for him to like soak that in at that age, my goodness. And he's on pod test episode like 11 or 12 now, and he's getting better with everyone. So, anyway, I know you asked, like, what would he say about me? Um, yeah, I I would just say that he'd say I'm present, and uh yeah, he'd probably say, like, I'm always playing and wrestling with him, is what I would say. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

So, what is the name of his podcast?

SPEAKER_00 30:18

It's Leo Interviews. It's just that that's it. Leo Interviews.

Book Site And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 30:22

It's funny. I had a 10-year-old on my podcast too. I had him on mine, and he was one of one of my staff's little boy, and I just love him. And we had a ball, it was so much fun. It's really cool. So, what's next for you? Where can people connect with you or learn about the buyback time formula?

Closing Reminder To Share

SPEAKER_00 30:39

Yeah, so I got buybacktimeformula.com. I got all my social links there, my Facebook, LinkedIn, all this other stuff. I do post daily, like a little short kind of like thought of the day kind of thing, just to inspire people. There's a link to my book there. It's free, just pay shipping. It's a heavy book, it's 128 pages. It's got everything I know about buying back time. It's not one of these things where they give you little nuggets and then you gotta pay five thousand dollars for everything else. It's like all in there. I also know people who are like me 10 years ago, cash-rich, time poor, I would have paid a small fortune to collapse the time it took me from getting from that proud uh that prisoner I built, uh, the prison I built for myself to the the freedom where I'm pouring into my son. I would have, I don't know what I would have paid, but a lot. My information's there in case people need somebody to walk through that process with them. If nothing else for accountability and sort of like that experience from somebody who's having been there done that. Yeah, I've been marketing online for 30 years since the mid-90s, done over 400 million dollars in sales online. Yeah, but I I never had anybody tell me, oh my gosh, this bottle of pills completely changed my life. You know, I'm the selling supplements, but I had a number of men over the last few months tell me, you know, text me like, oh my gosh, I didn't realize how how much my kids needed my presence. They light up a Christmas tree when I'm around. And that gives them confidence and and you know, like like determination. They get to see an example of something. And um, yeah, so that that's that's what I'm doing it for. And uh yeah, that's where they can find me. I tend to go off the rails there sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

That's it's a it's a great conversation. And I know one thing that if people could realize success that costs you your family, your fate, and your peace, it's too expensive. And if this episode resonated with any of you out there, please share it. And you know, know that we only live one life. And we get to have these moments that are so beautiful if we want to. But you don't get to have them if you don't spend time with your family, because that's the most important faith, family, and business. And I forgot that many times in my life too. So thank you for reminding me. It's been a pleasure getting to know you in this short time. I already feel such a nice connection to you, and I appreciate it. So, anyways, I hope to see you again soon. I hope everyone go to buybacktimeformula.com and take a look at what George has to offer because I think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised. Thank you, George.

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Yes, thank you, Dion. It's been fun.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Thank you.