Train For A Great Life
A Great Life doesn't happen by accident.
I'll share my own experiences, thoughts on training, mindset, life and how to build a great life of your own.
Train For A Great Life
Jeff Smith: Family, Fitness, Freedom, Finances.
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Introduction to Jeff Smith
Speaker 1Hello , welcome back to another episode of Train for a Great Life . This one I'm very excited about . I've got Jeff Smith with me here and Jeff , as I said , I'm going to kind of lead in with this hook and then we're going to . I think we got to take it way back . You are traveling in an RV around the country . I believe you're doing all 50 states .
Speaker 2Not in an RV , obviously , because you can't get there .
Speaker 1Right , yes , sure , that is the vision All 50 states . If you could , you would Driving yes , yeah With your wife and four , four kids . Yes , four kids , yeah , and this is by choice , this is by design , and , um , I think it's going to be really cool to just unpack like where you came from and kind of like where you are now . Uh , and I think the coolest part about it all is like you are teaching people how to do some of the things you're doing , and not necessarily exactly like they don't have to follow your path , and things you're doing and not necessarily exactly like they don't have to follow your path , and you know , do that . But you're , you're showing them options , um , which is is really cool .
Speaker 1And I've I've been , um , you know , in and around your sphere for for quite a while and , um , it's some of the stuff's hard to grasp sometimes and and I feel like , further along the path now , um , I get it . So I'd like to you know , we'll go , we'll go way back and and then maybe we'll kind of take an angle at some of this stuff of like , where , where do you start ? How do you start ? Small , and you know , for someone that's not necessarily thinking that they can like the mindset of abundance you talk about a lot and to me that's believing that you can change . You change with the things that you do . So let's go like just way back and kind of start me off like early days of , like Jeff Smith , like you know , who did you grow up as ?
Speaker 2oh man oh man , um ,
Early Life and Military Background
Speaker 2I , I don't know . I think I grew up very quickly . Um , I was , uh , my my dad left when I was eight years old , and so that left my mom and I in quite a predicament , uh , financially and also , like , I guess , from a guidance standpoint . So I didn't really have a father figure in my life ever . But also my mom worked full time . She was a teacher for 38 years , and so what that did is it left me to kind of to my own devices most of the time and , uh , I was kind of on my own to take care of my own shit , and so , um , that really formed me and built me kind of into the decision maker . I feel like I am right now and and also , um , like a little bit of resilience and uh , sure yeah .
Speaker 2Yeah , just a lot of a lot of different lessons came out of that . Sports were really integral in my development process . I played about every sport you could play just to keep myself busy . I was a troublemaker , admittedly , and so left to my own devices . It was not a good thing .
Speaker 2I was in and out of trouble with the cops frequently when I was young , and so football was kind of my thing and I played football into college and then , after an injury , kind of put me out there . I kind of decided I didn't want to , because I got a taste of making some money when I was about 18 , 19 years old and so for me it was kind of like oh well , football's all right , but like I'm not going to the NFL . And once I started making a little money I was like this is kind of cool to have money and kind of be in college , because I was still dabbling in college at that point in time . I then shortly thereafter dropped out altogether and went on and did my own thing , if you will . But then 9-11 hit . And when 9-11 hit , that was a real catalyst in my life . I switched directions . I was already in the corporate world at that point . I was 20 years old Because I started working in the corporate world at 19 .
Speaker 1Wow , that's an early start . I was going to ask what were you doing ? You said making money at 18 , 19 . That's an early start . I was going to ask what were you doing ? You said making money at like 18 , 19 . That's not most people .
Speaker 2I worked in an insurance administration role like call center type shit , and I did that . That's where I started when I was 19 , and I worked my way up to a technical analyst position to where I was troubleshooting and doing computer-type work as well . But then 9-11 hit and I had always had this dream , I guess , of going into special operations in the military , and so when I came out of high school that was kind of my direction I was either going to go to college and play football or I was gonna go into the military , and so at the time I chose football . And then with the , with 9-11 , it kind of reinvigorated that itch . I had to go into special operations .
Speaker 2so what I did was I enlisted full-time at that point in time , left my job and my career , if you will , if you want to call it that at that age um and uh went into special operations and kind of true , had a trajectory in there , deployed a few times , did a couple things in there I'm sure yeah , we fought in a couple of the wars early on . I was in the military from 2001 to 2004 .
Speaker 1And so that was a crazy time .
Speaker 2Then I got injured and got medically discharged from the military and after that I went and came back and got a job with the same Fortune 50 company that I had worked for previously and went back into the corporate world , where I spent I don't know another I guess 14 years . During that same time I met my wife . She was going to do her PhD at Rice , so we moved to Houston in 2008 .
Speaker 2So she and I have been together since 2006 , I guess , and so 19 years at this point . Um , but we , that's what originally took us to Houston . I continued to work a corporate job , virtually , and opened a gym , started buying real estate and that's it . Man , that's the fast version .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah , okay , so we'll , we'll dig into some more , some more stuff . Like maybe I mean we can go one
Transition to Corporate and Real Estate
Speaker 1or two direct or a lot of different directions , but like I mean we can go one or two directions , a lot of different directions . But like I want to ask , like , how did you just get into real estate ? And then , like , what led you to open a gym ? Maybe you know , we can choose one of those first .
Speaker 2Yeah , real estate was kind of natural to me . When I was growing up I had said my dad left , but before he left I was used to . We used to flip houses , if you will , but we would move into them and renovate them ourselves and then sell them and move to the next house , like when I was in second grade , I lived in three different homes .
Speaker 2In the first like six months of the school year , and so , like this was a thing that we did , yeah , and so I . I think I had just picked it up through that , but I mean , obviously I was very young at that point in time . Um , it was also , having worked in financial services , I did not like the trajectory of my money , um , so I was looking for another way to do things . I read all the books . Think and Grow Rich Kiyosaki's book I can't think of it right now Rich Dad , rich Dad , poor Dad , yes , rich .
Speaker 2Dad , poor Dad . That one is a catalyst of mindset and a way to think differently . It's kind of what we talk about regularly , which is like don't just go buy the stuff with your earned income .
Speaker 2Buy the asset that can pay for the stuff that you want , and and that has been a philosophy that I have lived by , or tried attempted to live by , um , most of my life , and it's served me well , um , so , yeah , that got me into things . I bought my first uh home at 24 years old and I bought my first apartment complex at 26 . So we owned an apartment complex before we moved to Houston , and so we had some rentals way back when um that we owned for a period of time .
Speaker 2I was out of real estate for a five yearyear period , from 2013 to 2018 , running the gym , trying to figure that shit out and getting acclimated in the service-based world , because it's way different than real estate , right ? Oh , for sure , yeah .
Speaker 1Well , I mean , lacey's whole family is real estate , from agent to brokerage to owning company to industrial like all sorts of stuff there . I know more of the other side of things , right , so maybe let's dabble in the gym era for
Opening a CrossFit Gym
Speaker 1a little bit .
Speaker 2Yeah , the gym was a weird thing . It kind of just came out of nowhere . It was pretty natural to me . Um , it was so when we moved to Houston in 2008, . I didn't really have like any outlets , if you will , cause I worked out of the house . My wife went and did her PhD . She was on campus all the time . I didn't really have any friends or know anybody down there . I didn't really have any friends or know anybody down there but one thing when I got out of the military in 2004, .
Speaker 2We picked up CrossFit in 2004 because they were using it in special operations units .
Speaker 1Right , super early . It had its roots in all of that stuff . Early adopters , yeah .
Speaker 2Exactly , and so I was turned on to it at that point in time . I never joined a gym when we lived in Illinois . I did it in my backyard . We had like all the gear we had like a gym set up in our backyard in Illinois .
Speaker 1There weren't even gyms around back then , like hardly .
Speaker 2Not where we lived , absolutely not . But when we moved to Houston , houston's monstrous right there was this was 2008 . Yeah , there was three gyms in Houston , in the whole metro , that did CrossFit , and one of them happened to be right down the street from our house , and so I would go there to get out of the house . And so I started working out there Instantly . I made friends with the owner . He's like hey , dude , you want to come coach some classes ? And I was like sure , like sure , fuck , it's something else to do . And so , um , so I started coaching classes for him and then , two or three years later , he was like hey , do you want to run this gym ? And I was like absolutely not . Well , I mean , I was open to it . But I was like , uh , he , he's like you , you would have to quit your corporate job . And I was like , yeah , fuck , no , dude .
Speaker 2Like I make way too much money to do this full time . Um , and that particular guy was a little hot-headed and a little volatile and I was like no , no chance I'm taking my sole income to like deal with you on a regular basis , who could come in on a Richter scale of emotions at any point in time . And so I just didn't do it .
Speaker 2But when I said no , um , that kind of lit , that kind of became the fuse that I was on my way out there and and so when I didn't want to do it , he didn't want me around anymore because I was , I don't know , influential in the community and stuff like that right .
Speaker 1Yeah , it just changes sort of the nature of the relationship .
Speaker 2So my wife and I got together and we were like , why don't we open a gym ?
Speaker 1For some reason , you're like fuck , no over here .
Speaker 2Then like , let's just turn that into a yes yeah , but but doing it for myself is a different yeah , very , very um .
Speaker 1Yeah , I get that that uh beginning and that was can't .
Speaker 2That's canon yeah , yeah , beginning of 2011 . We opened um canon crossfit at the time Turned into Cannon Fitness and Performance shortly thereafter . I was an acolyte of John Wellborn's forever . That's where I grew up . It grew up in the fitness space . We didn't ever do conventional CrossFit , crossfit football in its roots , hybrid athlete type stuff um , yeah that that's really power athlete .
Speaker 2Um , that's that's what we did . That's what our gym was like the built on we didn't do all the conventional crossfit stuff , which kind of was a double-edged sword people . People didn't want to do certain stuff . They thought they were getting a CrossFit gym right . But for me , I was real entrenched in my belief system on what we should be doing and how we should be training , and so that's kind of where we came from . I went to the original CrossFit football certification with like Wellborn and those guys down at Tennessee Tech .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , that would have been awesome 2006 .
Speaker 2It was a , maybe it was 08 . 08 .
Speaker 1Okay , so you were into this stuff like really early , but from the grassroots of 2004 to like certs in 06 or even 08 , that's super early . I hadn't even heard of it yet . I was a year later .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah . I never even got a CrossFit level one for a real long time , I don't even think , until I opened my gym , because the cert I was working off of was the CrossFit football certification and so , yeah , that's what covered me on certification . And so , yeah , that that's what covered me on insurance and stuff like that cool . Raphael Ruiz and those guys , the OGs of the like speed camps , that's yeah those guys were all at the original football cert . It was . It was good , really good , good times yeah , yeah , yeah absolutely a lot since then yeah , absolutely , um , okay .
Speaker 1So then the gym era , I mean , and that that's where we got linked up . Um , you know , we , we met , we met in two brain there and and um , we're both on the mentor team . You were on there before I , I think I can , I Before , I think , I came on in 2018 onto the team there .
Speaker 2Yeah , Anastasia and I were like same time frame , I think we were fifth and sixth or fourth and fifth , something like that .
Speaker 1Yeah , I think I might have been like 12 or something like that , which I mean there's been lots and lots after that . So again , that's pretty early , early , early into that . And then you , you built the mastermind level group there which has now shifted . I mean , now it's it's you you're doing your thing with , with Tactical Empire , so I'm sure it's kind of nice to have that as your own .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , I mean I , I loved building that program . I learned a lot of lessons , admittedly .
Speaker 1Absolutely .
Speaker 2So I don't think it was lost time at all , but we bootstrapped that thing . It was funny . I remember you at one of the original events like way back very early .
Speaker 1Um , where , where was it ? It was um gosh . Where did I fly to ?
Speaker 2I feel like it might have been . I don't know . I remember the room distinctly . I can't remember where we were yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah . Andrea Leighton Leighton was there , Was it ? Oh gosh , Was there a meetup in Houston ?
Speaker 2I was going to say Houston . It might be Houston , I think it was .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I think it was . Yeah , sean was there . Yeah , it was a small room . It was like 10 , 15 people maybe Come a long way . Yeah , I remember I brought you some maple syrup . You're like what the fuck is this ? Like Canada man ? Yeah , it was . Yeah , I remember . So I distinctly remember actually talking to you about joining that program .
Speaker 1I was sitting on a forklift inside of my gym as we were like taking over this , this , the sort of second side , like expanding from 3 5,000 square feet and things were going really well at that time , like we were starting to really see compounding of some of the things we were learning and putting into place , and I was like you know what , I've never been led astray by these guys . I'm not usually an early adopter of things , but I was like you know what , let's go . And I just don't know if I was quite ready to be in that room like I wanted to be , but like from uh , I don't know , I feel like there was a little bit of mindset that held me back . But also there were things like that , if you recall , like I mean , I'm sitting in the house that we built now . Um , that was a big project and a lot of the stuff that you teach .
Speaker 1You know , I kind of I was like I don't know how to set this up without sort of getting past this , this thing , and , like you know , now , I looking back , just start smaller , like just get it in , cause there's been times where , it would you know , I look back and it's like it would have been really helpful . But you know , it's like the whole , you know when's the best time to plant a tree , 20 years ago or now , right , yeah . So , um , yeah , it's , it's neat to now be on the other side of of the house and then , um , you know , kind of starting to get a little bit more dialed with with uh , with everything , with that stuff . So , um , yeah , let's , maybe , let's maybe go into tactical empire . You got the shirt on , I see there
Building Tactical Empire
Speaker 1. Um , so what ? What's like the ? The , the mission of this group .
Speaker 2I think the most simplified way to put it is I want a group of guys that are aspiring to be great husbands , great fathers and make a fuckload of money . That's the simplistic like , but what that means to you is different than what it means to me .
Speaker 1Of course , yeah .
Speaker 2Going back to the very beginning of this episode . Like that journey is , is yours , yours to ? Lay out yeah yours to figure out and then and then we can help . The structure that we've built and that we teach you guys to implement is the same across the board . It's just how big or how small do you want to scale it and what's enough in your mind .
Speaker 2yeah , ultimately , I think it's we're looking for guys that I think the the glue that bonds everybody together is we've we've all created a certain level of success in our own lives and I think that we have aspired to .
Speaker 2For me , the reason why it's really intimately important to me is because I used to run and , run and run and I would be like , hey , when I reach this level , then everything will change , then everything will be fixed , then all the problems will be clear .
Speaker 2I'll be present with my family . I'll then all the problems will be clear . I'll be present with my family . I'll spend all the time with my kids , and I think that the guys in the group have have spent enough years doing that that the realization is , fuck man , like there's , there's no finish line to this stuff . So , like , if we're going to spend time with our kids or be present with our family and those things are truly important to us , as we espouse , then we need to be doing it right now . And so how do you do it and how do you expand in all these areas at the same time , while building legacy , while trying to put together passive income , and I just feel like it's a sandbox for guys that are supporting each other along that same journey . Whether you're trying to get to $1 million of net worth or whatever or I'm trying to get to $50 million it's the same thing on a different scale , but we're dealing with all the same problems .
Speaker 1Absolutely . I love how you laid that out with all the same problems Absolutely Like .
Speaker 1I love how you laid that out , because that arriving at this life with no problems like it just doesn't exist . You know , I think some of the just listening to different podcasts , books , like you know , podcasts are super cool because you you sort of have this window of access into people like um . I listened to modern wisdom quite a bit with chris williamson and he's interviewed um I forget the guy's name . He's like a billionaire and he's just like one of the . He's just deeply unhappy and it's and it's part of part of the drive to like I don't know , people are wired differently , you know , and and there's these people that are just wired to build and do and just they , they don't know how to stop and turn it off and and like it . I don't want to have that completely be wired that way . I have some of it right and so , like that whole , what is enough ? You know , I feel that and kind of bumping up against that here and there , but you have to take the time and get away from things and be intentional about it . It's a deeply personal journey . I touched on this .
Speaker 1I talked to Chris Williams recently and I was actually on his podcast . We got into a little this a little bit deeper , but , like our journey to have a family , like it was , it was a very , very bumpy road with multiple miscarriages and surrogacy and then , ultimately , like you know , my first son , leonardo , was carried by my sister-in-law , heidi , and then calvin just lace was able to do it . It worked the eighth time and it worked , um , so , so the you know my journey , early on I realized it might have been like 2019 . Yeah , I mean kind of in the thick of like , realizing what our path , like you know , you don't . You don't know about some things until you eat .
Speaker 1A lot of things you don't know about until you're forced to , right , so , like going down that whole , like fertility , surrogacy , like I was like holy shit , this is going to be , this is going to be expensive . This isn't just like you know , this is going to be expensive . This isn't just , like you know , make a baby the the fun and easy way , you know , um , and , and so I was like , okay , this is , this is a motivator , like I got , we have to make a lot of money right now to to have to to have a family , like what some people fall ass backwards into yeah , right , and so like that's . Yeah , like I'm not interested in the super fancy stuff , but so I guess , in ways like that's kind of like shaped how I view things , and you know , obviously like it's , if you don't keep coming back to what's important , what's enough , you can lose track and lose sight of that , which I feel like I've done at times too . Um , but I , I guess that's the that's maybe the silver lining of this .
Speaker 1This path that we've been on is like I'm , my family is very young and , um , our life has been organized to spend a lot of time with them and um , just have have the freedom to do it .
Speaker 2You know , yeah , yeah , and that that's where everything came from . I mean , my journey was that I was very myopic , um , in my approach , like I just wanted more money , more money , more money when I solved this problem . Then everything else will take care of itself . And what that did was it blew up my marriage , it blew up my relationships . My kids were growing . Probably my first two daughters were born and I was still in that mindset , and it was a recipe for disaster . I mean , it was a recipe for me ending up like where I am today , with no kids , no wife and nothing and except some money , and uh right .
Speaker 1What are you doing now ? Almost exactly Right .
Speaker 2And so , like that reality hit me in the face like a ton of bricks and uh , and , and then I looked around and I was like I don't , like , I don't see any models for like having it all . Like I don't see any models for having it all . I don't see any models for guys necessarily doing this and having great home lives . I had met enough people at that point in time that I was in enough circles that you kind of get behind the curtains and you never meet your heroes , they say .
Speaker 2And there's a lot of truth to that absolutely so you get around these people and they're great in one area but like they're a scumbag in another area , or they're , they're like they don't pay attention to their kids , or their kids hate them or whatever like . But nobody else's fucking path is my path , so I don't consume myself with that too much , except the fact that I wasn't able to locate any models where people were looking for expansion in all these areas at the time .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2Now there's a bunch of groups out there dad groups and shit like that that really support kind of similar to our ethos and our mission . Ours is really heavy on finances because , as you know , like I'm , I'm real passionate about people understanding that money is not a bad thing . It's just a tool . Like I would love for you to make hundreds of millions of dollars and if you don't fucking want any of it you want to drive an old car and do whatever you want give it all away , because then it's a tool to like amplify your values , because whoever you donate that money to is going to be something that you see value in , and it makes the world a better place that
The Freedom of RV Life
Speaker 2way .
Speaker 2Right Um and so , yeah , man , like I , I just want . I think that people can have all the areas I mean . That's . That's why our pillars are the four F's . I think you can be in great shape and you should be in great shape , you should take care of your health and , along the way , you should have a great family life and if that's what's important to you , you can focus on that and you can still build businesses or make money , and it doesn't have to be all consuming .
Speaker 1Yeah , who's been influential in the you know , because I'm sure along the way you have found some people that have helped you model you and you've learned from like who's been influential to you on along the way to to like building what you've built now man I like .
Speaker 2I I have personal like Sammy Knight . If you know him , he's a personal mentor of mine . He has so much wisdom . He's obviously 20 or 30 years ahead of me , which comes in very handy .
Speaker 2It's usually how it works , yeah which comes in very handy because he's lived basically the life that I was telling you about , where you're singularly focused on building businesses , and he did all that and so he can speak intimately to the results of what comes with that and the years of attrition that are necessary for making up for that type of narrow focus . Right , he's very influential . I think I take pieces of all . Like everybody I I'm I'm very acutely aware of what kind of fits in my toolbox and then what I say no to , um like to , to the point of having met all these people like I , I'm not really . I don't really look to or identify with one person as like someone that I model a lot of things after Because , like I , live like an RV man .
Speaker 2Like I'm a little wild .
Speaker 1Yes you're not a normal human being . I mean , you've got , your name is Jeff Smith . It is a very it's just . Here's a common guy . You're not a common guy .
Speaker 2Yeah , and and and for me , like I'm , I'm very , very like intimately involved with my mortality and and my mission is to like just live full out as hard as I can the whole time I'm here , live full out as hard as I can the whole time I'm here , and like an experience , everything like really get and not get too hung up on things . I think one , that one thing that I've been working through really thoroughly personally is the high performers and and it's a tendency in the high performing community to be dogmatically addicted to your routine , um , and and I I've kind of been going real deep on that Like Sean is that guy like okay ?
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2I , I was that guy and I and I didn't . I was that guy and I didn't realize it as much until we left to RV .
Speaker 1So , like 16 months ago , we've been on the road 16 months at this point . That's a long time , man . Where are you right now ? I think you're in Michigan .
Speaker 2Upper Peninsula , Michigan . We're leaving tomorrow . We're going to do Wisconsin and Minnesota still this summer . Um and uh , yeah and so , but , but I didn't realize how addicted I was to my routine and and how I let it affect me . Um , and so what I've been working through the last 16 months is dealing with all that , and it's been literally like an addiction , like coming off of an addiction , because , like you recognize .
Speaker 2You recognize your spikes in cortisol . You recognize what is stressing you out , throwing you off , because in this life I don't have enough room to like manage my shit right . Like I can't go to my office at 3 o'clock in the morning and just bang away until 8 am and not bother anybody , so like I've had to change my routine drastically . And then I have to be flexible with how things work out .
Speaker 2Right , because I've got my daily like whatever non-negotiables that have to happen , but I have to be very fluid in how those present themselves and like that has been quite a learning curve to overcome and like not be fucking a tyrant with my kids and my wife and be like I have to do this , I have to work out or I have to get work done , um , cause we're still trying to experience all these things too Right .
Speaker 1Right .
Speaker 2So it's super interesting , Um , but yeah .
Speaker 1I mean you're . You're literally living in a , in a day , every day's different .
Speaker 2Yeah and but it . But it makes me recognize how dogmatically addicted I was to my routine with our house in Houston .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2My shit exactly where my shit was supposed to be With my food , exactly where my food was supposed to be . The weather didn't really matter , because I had workarounds for it at my house . I had a gym at my house . I had everything at my house . I had a gym at my house . I had everything at my house .
Speaker 1Okay , Okay , I was going to ask for some examples because , like , of just how , like how you're talking about this , Cause I think something just the the way that people live , the pace that we live , the freaking distractions and soothing options all around us all the time , Like I think people just live very unaware . Uh , and I mean I I'm not saying this as like I'm sitting on up on the throne , like you know , I I'm not , I'm , I don't do this at all , but I think talking about it shows awareness . So , yeah , I just see people sort of unaware of their daily rhythms and how that affects them and maybe the path that it's leading them on right , like so are there any specifics that you can really point to ?
Speaker 2I mean , you've pointed to a few already well , I mean , it's like for me I was a morning guy and that's what built my entire life , our wealth and my freedom .
Speaker 2Like I would wake up whenever necessary to get my work done by 8 o'clock in the morning , 7 o'clock in the morning , something like that , and that was legitimately like my work day . And so I was a 3 am 4 am guy and that's when I did my critical tasks , that's when I got everything done and then the rest of the day I just like did whatever I wanted to do . Then you can respond to fires , take phone calls , stuff like that . But like in in the RV , you cannot do that . Like you can't , I can't . I can wake up , wake up early , I can be quiet , but there's a limited amount of time that or a limited amount of stuff that I can actually get done , because I don't have a desk , I can't record things like in my , in my house it was like a studio I can do whatever needed done at any point in time and everyone sleep right through it and so .
Speaker 2So a big thing is like when do you get your critical tasks done ? When do you get your focused work done ? Right , that's a hard one because you're you're like I'm big on energy management , right . Like , when are you most acutely aware of , like , your ability to focus ? Like I , I'm a morning guy , so if I lose that four to seven , four to 8 , I'm just not as cognitively sharp at 11 o'clock in the morning trying to do real focused work .
Speaker 1Right .
Speaker 2But the way I flipped this switch because it used to drive me fucking crazy and it would ruin my days or I would be preoccupied with it ,
Balancing Family and Success
Speaker 2that what I wasn't getting done , it would create anxiety while we were out doing something While we're out having this meal in this place that we're here for one day like this is supposed to be special I'm off in the clouds thinking about the shit that I didn't get done , and so like there's no presence to it , right ? So the way that I had to challenge myself to this is like I had to recognize it . I'm like , fuck man , like I was clearly addicted to my routine there's no question about it . But like the way I , the way I talked to myself about it , is like I was like , well , that's , that's a real weak ass . Fucking way to be right .
Speaker 1I would imagine the inner dialogue .
Speaker 2Like you're not , you shoot straight well , yeah , of course , and I'm like man , I'm a fucking pussy . So my schedule got thrown off in two hours . So that's going to ruin my day and everybody else's day , or I'm going to make an excuse to not get that done .
Speaker 1Right , let's go ruin the kid's time at the park and like , have your wife pissed at you for the rest of the day because of that .
Speaker 2Right , yes , exactly , exactly . So what I what I flipped it into is like this is simply developing resilience because , like , if you go back to my special operations career , like no mission goes exactly as you thought it would . As soon as you leave the gate , shit goes sideways . And so like , are you a resilient human being ? At that time I was very resilient . Okay , I could deal with fucking anything . Oh shit , we're getting shot at , we better not continue to go straight , we should turn and get the fuck out of the line of fire , and and so like . When you think about that and and you put things into perspective , like it really shines a light on the fact that , like I , I was not mentally as strong as I thought I was , because , I couldn't deal with this level of mental resilience , or mental , I guess , setbacks , if you will , and so I
Speaker 2allowed myself to be weak in how I managed my emotions because I couldn't find the routine that I was comfortable with and felt comfortable with . But the reality of it is . I just had to understand that the reason that we're doing all of this is to experience all of these things and to take our kids through all these experiences , and so I had to take a step back and understand that , like mentally , I am creating these blocks and these problems for myself , which is then impeding my ability to enjoy any of this stuff .
Speaker 2So , I need to change my mindset , my frame of thinking of what the reality of work looks like and what the reality of my expectations of myself can look like , and so it's just been an interesting exercise that's constantly evolving . I'm still involved in it right now .
Speaker 1It doesn't end . Yeah , it doesn't end when you think you've arrived , like I know , I've heard you talk about measuring the four Fs fitness , freedom , finances and family again in whatever order . But you're like , if you're rating yourself ever at like a 10 , like you don't get it .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah . Right , you don't understand the process or the journey . Right , yeah , that's exactly right .
Speaker 1It's interesting to the , because I don't think I know that most people are not going to have the analogy of being shot at and like , hey , this path isn't working , let's move , let's turn . And I think that's the unawareness that I was kind of talking about . There's this story of three guys sitting on a deck and one of you know one of them's , he's got his dog out there and the dog's just like , he's like making these kind of . They're like what's going on with your dog ? Oh , he's just laying on a nail , like why doesn't he move ?
Speaker 1It's not uncomfortable enough yet , right , it's just , it's just digging at you a little bit , but not enough to actually do something about . And I don't know . I think that I think that's where a lot of people kind of like , unfortunately , spend their time not knowing that you can change things . But it's uncomfortable , it's not comfortable to like you know , you're , you're , you're , you're calling yourself like a fucking pussy and and that's that's not . Like you can joke about that or you can take that to heart and actually like okay , okay , what do I have to do to change ? Like I have things that aren't serving me and like our you know the way that my wife looks at me is like I'm creating a problem , like that's uncomfortable to actually deal with , right ?
Speaker 2Absolutely , absolutely , yeah , and and the ethos that we teach in the tactical empire ultimately is you have to lead yourself well , so that you can lead your family well , so that you can lead your teams , businesses , community well . But it all starts right in between your ears personally like , how are you handling your business ?
Speaker 2and so when I look around and I see , see the energy off in my family , I look in the mirror . I'm like what am I doing to cause this problem or exacerbate it ? And sometimes it's a simple fix Like , hey guys , I need 15 minutes , I need to go finish this thing so that I can close the and then focus on you guys a hundred percent . But like man I am , I am just a real harsh critic of like everything in my life is my problem and and so like . But I'm also very , very , very hyper aware . Like you talk about awareness quite a bit in this episode and that is that is a catalyst of mine , like the recognition and the ability to recognize those things like you talk about being in the room of that mastermind in 2019 .
Speaker 2I knew what your problem was , but I wish I could have gotten you to be like hey , why am I experiencing these feelings ?
Speaker 1right Right .
Speaker 2Like , so you need to unpack all that Like what and we talk , I use the word friction and the term friction all the time . So like what ? Is what is causing that friction , and the more people can stop themselves and recognize like , hmm , I'm out of , I'm out of the rails , and why is ?
Speaker 1it happening ?
Speaker 2is it an external thing ? Is it an internal thing ? Why am I ramping up my stress levels , anxiety levels , lack of focus ? For , yeah , my number one thing to deal with right now is presence 100% , and like getting off my phone and making sure that I'm dialed in and not . So how can I actually close that loop so that I can focus on my family and like ? I put together a little list of things that need done in order to focus on that , and and and . I am far , far from perfect , but it's a it's a constant work in progress , but I think we're fighting technology in that , though , all the time we're living it .
Speaker 2They're improving their fucking dopamine responses that they're putting in front of your face and we're trying to improve our neuroplasticity and grow in our resilience to their fucking games . But they're moving at a pace that we we're trying to keep up with yeah , it's , it's .
Speaker 1I mean , how old are you ? Your early 40s ?
Speaker 245 45 .
Speaker 1Okay , I'm 41 . Like the way that we grew up is just totally different . Um , the , the awareness thing is cool . I can give you two examples of like um , I , I've been working on being a lot more aware of this stuff . You say closing the loop .
Speaker 1If I have , like again something that's just not done and it's on my mind like I need to just tell Lace , hey , I need 10 minutes , I need half an hour , I need to do this . And if I just try to do it without telling her I need a little bit of time , then it's like what are you doing ? Like , where are you right now ? Right , yes , yes , and and and and sometimes it's , it's that , and then sometimes it's just , you know , yesterday there was a , there was a . I had a little back and forth with someone . It's just like it wasn't my stress , but they , they were going through something just uncomfortable , stressful , and it's like I care and and it was just like it , I was feeling it , I was feeling it for them , right , it was feeling very empathetic and like it . Just it threw me off for , I don't know , probably a good 30 , 40 minutes and , okay , this is . This is a conversation I'm having right now , and this is why I'm kind of just a little internal right now , and and again , if I don't express what's going on , then I avoid it . Look , I shell up , or or like then , hey , what's going on ? I'm defensive , right , I posted something yesterday .
Speaker 1It's just like you know , lessons as a parent thing , and one of them we try to have our phones away , especially just during family time . You know , if we're going to go to the park , like you go to the park , you see , you know , a kid on the climber . It's like watch me , watch me , watch me . And the parent's on the phone . It's like I don't want to be that Um , so we try to have them away . And and I , you know , if Leonardo , cause he's , he's pretty keenly aware he's four now he can communicate pretty well . If he says to me , like dad , why are you always on your phone ? Like I again , awareness , I don't want to be the guy . That's just like you know , I'm not , I'm not , I'm not , it's okay , I want that to crush me .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 1I want , I want .
Speaker 2There's that meme of like this is what your kids think you look like . If they drew a portrait of you , right , and it's , it's your phone in front of your face and it blocks out , right .
Speaker 1Your face and that's who they know you as Right . Yeah , I've seen that Like the kid draw a photo . Or I've seen another one because Lace and I are on a really good basically like just alcohol is almost out of our lives at this point . I mean , I think for the last five months we're one drink a week or less , which has been a welcome change . It's been amazing .
Speaker 1You know , if anyone's hearing this and curious , I would be more than happy to chat with you about it , because I definitely struggled with the itch of that for a while of COVID , post-covid years , you know , just not again , not really realizing how much it's not serving you , but so we'll , we lean into that . You know , if I see a like you said , if I see on Instagram , it's like this a kid draws a photo of mom and the mom's got a wine glass in her hand , like I'm going to send that to her and she's going to send that to me . It's like they're watching , they're paying attention and and and like it's not harmless , it's just , it's just not right , yeah , yeah , yeah , you have to be the example in all areas .
Speaker 1Why I feel like this is . I mean , to me it might be obvious or I could have my understanding of why . But why Tactical Empire ? Why do you work with just guys ?
Speaker 2I don't know . This could go a million directions .
Speaker 1We can take it a few , right yeah ?
Speaker 2I mean , I've done business consulting for 10 years now and I think that there wasn't enough outlets for men . In my opinion , I really wanted to build a tribe of guys . I also think that fathers are vitally important . I don't think there's enough . There's not enough leaders out there , and and I think that that was really , really , really spotlighted during covid um the men did not stand up and show up the way they needed to , and so , for me , I want 100 dudes that are fucking really convicted with what they believe and they're capable and convicted to take care of their families at a high level , and and I don't it's going to create ripples .
Speaker 2Yeah , yes , exactly Cause it cause . If , if we can have a hundred men in that group living , living what we espouse , like the changes that they can make with two to six kids each and a healthy fucking marriage and modeling that for their kids , Um , the the generational changes that can be made just from that small community are very impactful . Nothing against women , I don't care if they want to succeed or be high achievers , that's great . I just think there's a there's a lot of fucking places for them to do that .
Speaker 1I would imagine that just the message has to change a little bit too . Like what . What comes to my mind is is um , like you can just get a little more narrowly focused , like um , alex Hormozy says that the riches are in the niches , and this isn't to say like , not from a money perspective , but just like being able to actually access , like go deeper , and like we're all gonna be fundamentally experiencing life . There's just differences between men and women and how they operate in their families and in society , right ?
Speaker 2well and for know me , you've been around me long enough . I mean , I I'm uh an acquired taste for everybody and and you , either you either get it or you don't , which has been like it's a really good thing for me , cause like I never had to go through that phase of where , like her Mosey talks about , you got to stand for something and then you turn off everybody else A lot of people struggle with that , but that's always been my way .
Speaker 2You either fucking love me or hate me , and there's not a lot of middle ground there . And for women , I really would oftentimes have to change or curate my message a little bit so that it was a little bit different . You know what I mean yeah , like , yeah , yeah , yeah in in the tactical empire . I say what I want to say and you guys receive it how you receive it , but I think you digest it in your own manner , like you .
Speaker 2You know the guys in there not everybody is fucking nearly as like , direct as me Like there's , there's pastors and all kinds of other people in there that don't curse , that don't have my same , like approach , um , but I think that that's like , ultimately , what I think you guys identify more than anything is that I'm there to help and and you get to go out and build your own life the way you want it , right With , with zero judgment from me . I'm still there to support you a hundred percent .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2And so , um , for me , I think that , like I wanted an environment where guys could fucking really just lean into what they were , what they were needing , and and I think that there's a lot of problems there I mean , we shoulder a lot of burden when it comes to being the breadwinners , when it comes to the stress of doing that , and the stress of providing for everybody is not something that everyone really understands , and females are just going to deal with it differently Now . They have their own perspective .
Speaker 2They are amazing for everything that they do . Own perspective they are amazing for everything that they do .
Speaker 1It's just not something that I wanted to co-mingle within this particular group . Yeah , no , I , I that's . It's a . It's a great answer . Um , it's not . I don't think it's to downplay that females deal with lots or have their own stresses and stuff , but , but there's yeah they're just . There are different , different stressors and even from person to person there's different stressors .
Speaker 2And to your point early on . Like I said to , the mission is to be great husbands , great fathers and make a fuck ton of money . So it doesn't really like lend itself to having women in there , Right , If that's well , I mean you , you , you go great .
Speaker 1Great spouses , great parents . There's a lot of branches off of that tree .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly , exactly so . Um , yeah , I mean for us , it was just like I wanted to be that narrow with it .
Speaker 2And I think that , um , it's . It's also an environment for people to think a little differently about how they need to lead , and so some of those conversations aren't like , they're not as fruitful if there's different perspectives . I think as husbands and as fathers , we deal with a unique set of problems , and I guess that's the best way to put it . You talked about how your communication style was to close off and not communicate early on .
Speaker 1Super common .
Speaker 2A lot of people that are in their first five years of marriage . That's probably how most men handle their shit . That's how I did , and what that created is like two silos of life going on . My wife's over here doing her thing , I'm over here doing my thing , not sharing fucking anything as far as like what was going on or what I was dealing with and , like that leads to problems .
Speaker 2What it creates within the group is a natural tier system of guys that are 25 , guys that are 35 , guys that are 45 , that are at different phases of everything , and so it brings in a level of understanding to like hey man , I've been there , I'm about to be married 19 years , you're married
The Seven Levels of Financial Freedom
Speaker 2six at this point , or whatever , right , not you , but like Right , six at this point , or whatever , right , not you , but like right , the we .
Speaker 1We understand the kind of seasons that , though , everybody's experiencing yeah , yeah , it's cool to see people that are young in these groups , like just open to , hopefully open to learning , right , I mean , it's it , it , uh , it it . Even when someone young signs up at my gym , I'm just like good for you , man , um , or or woman , right , um , but yeah , I , I see , I mean I can . I can think of a couple examples recently of just you know , when that friction happens in in a relationship and , um , again , everything's so nuanced , but just like , oh , I need to give him space or I need to give her space , and like I don't know , I don't know if that's the actual answer , like , oftentimes you need to , you actually deeply need each other and you need to open those lines of communication . And sometimes it has to , it has to get pretty raw before before that's able to you know where , where you , you start to understand each other at a , at a deep level of like why you do so or yourself , why you do the things you do .
Speaker 1Right , Awareness , bring it back to awareness , right ? Um , let's , let's , maybe let's talk about the . You know you've released the book recently . I bought a bunch of copies of it . I just sent one to my brother actually last week and let's talk about like sort of the seven levels , like I'll let you get into that . And I don't think it will surprise anybody to know that the first level is not anything about making money , it's about just taking care of your own shit .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah , it's this . The book is Operation Wealth . We released it two weeks ago . Basically , it's all the things that we teach in the tactical empire . Ultimately , it's the underlying structure to really everything that we do , and in our core structure is the seven levels of financial freedom , which includes every bit of all four pillars , which is , as you mentioned , family , fitness , freedom and finances and kind of working . Those seven levels basically like a flywheel of expansion , because we're always looking for optimizing our lives and living larger on every level . Like I want to . I want a level 10 marriage . I want a level 10 relationship with my kids , each of them individually . I want level 10 money in the bank , and uh and so , as you kind of cycle through those seven levels , um , you find yourself back at the beginning , over and over , which is the vision casting of , like who you're going to be , who have you grown into in the last two to three years ? You're a different person at this point , and so what's the next ? What's the next iteration of that vision ?
Speaker 1Right , what's the level 10 now ? Cause , right , what's level 10 now ? Because where you are and where I am , what our ourself , at 20 years old , 25 , 30 , could would look at , look and be like how do you do that ?
Speaker 2and and that's why I get so excited , like to your point , when the 20 year olds come in the group , when the 20 somethings come in the group , um , sean tells a story all the time of . When I met him , he was 28 years old and I was like holy fuck , dude , I'm going to change your entire life . If you will listen to what I say . I said by the time you're 35 years old , you won't have to do any of this shit If you just implement what I'm telling you to do . And he walked the path and the man is a living personification . I mean , he's still got his shit going on , right , I told you he's addicted to his routine . Fucking guy won't even fly anywhere without being a fucking curmudgeon . He's like a 100-year-old man in a 35-year-old man's body .
Speaker 2But like I mean , we've all got our own shit to work through . As you level up , you just find new problems and ultimately , yeah , I mean the seven levels are level ones . You are the asset , right , and what that means . And this is why , like it's a men's group , like I think leadership starts and ends with us . I mean our , our wives contribute to that . Um , but most households have an expectation that , like , you set the tone and how you show up sets the tone and and more is caught than taught . You've mentioned in here like they're watching what you're doing , how you're treating your wife , how that relationship looks like .
Speaker 2I have three daughters , and so for me it's it's really important that they come out with a healthy perspective of what a relationship looks like , so they don't end up in some crazy relationship with some dude that I've got to go have a talk with .
Speaker 1Right , I've got two sons and I don't want them to be the guy that has to hate that talk .
Speaker 2Yeah , exactly Exactly . I don't want them to be the guy that has to hate that talk . Yeah , exactly Exactly . And so , but you are the asset means like you need to recognize what you're doing . There's far too many like business owners that like neglect themselves and their personal care , their weight , their nutrition , their addictions whether it be pills or porn or fucking booze whether it be pills or porn or fucking booze like all that shit is running you down and stealing your best version of you and and the ability for you to elevate to that level , and so it really that's what it's about .
Speaker 2Like . Level one is about just getting your shit together and as you , as you kind of evolve or step through the different levels to seven , it scales with your capabilities and yeah and to your point like start where you are .
Speaker 2It like that first circle might be a really small circle and yeah and then it expands and works its way out , but as you come back to level one , ultimately you want to be resetting that vision and recasting that for like you're a different human . Now . You have a different relationship now . Your spouse is different now . I mean , we're just these ever-evolving organisms that want and do and have different capabilities at all times . And so it goes back to awareness , to your point .
Speaker 1Yeah , I want to . I want to say it in a different way , that , like , again , I , I , I have , I do this cause . I hope that's along the way , someone's going to take something from it . Um , the , you mentioned the . You mentioned the addiction , whether it's like addiction to your phone , the addiction to work , addiction to porn , addiction to pills , addiction to booze , and that's a sliding scale .
Speaker 1It doesn't like there's no just avatar . It's like , you know , like we don't think , we think of an alcoholic as , like the 1960s , like you know , comes home and just like beats on his family , like that's not what it looks like all the time . And so , like this awareness and building your best self and who you want to be , if you were to ask , like , at what level are you ? You do you have enough awareness to of , like you know , let's ask , let's ask a 10 year old , right , okay , what are the attributes of this person ? Okay , they , you know , conscientious , kind , you know , go all down the line .
Speaker 1Okay , what if we add a couple of these things ? What if ? What if they ? What if they ? Um , what if they add them all in ? Right , what if ? What if they , uh , work so much that they neglect their family is that ? Would that be good to add ? It's an obvious no . You know what , if what , like what , if what , if they're , what , if they're , um , you know , just indulging in , in porn or alcohol or whatever these things , these these soothing things that create a disconnect in this , in the relationship , and you know , again , that's what , that puts you on a path that you don't want to be on . Would that be good to add ? For me it was right , obvious no it for ?
Speaker 2for me , it was the recognition of like you're slightly missing targets yes you want to be here . You missed here , so like to drinking like I . I'm a . I'm a big drinker from way back . It's no secret .
Speaker 1Like you talk about growing up in the 90s , like that , like yeah , no , I remember some of our early interactions in Chicago and like it was , it was a thing for sure .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , yeah , yeah , and so like . For me it goes back to analyzing where I'm at . Like you circle back to that vision right , I've gotten here , I'm successful by a lot of measures , but like , I'm not where I want to be , and so , like , what is potentially holding me back ? And so you identify those things and when you start the process , when you start this process , it's kind of easy Like , oh well , fucking , I have terrible habits , I can get rid of this , get rid of that . But as you continue to expand and optimize your life , it becomes more and more nuanced . Like , oh okay , maybe I need to hire a fucking coach for this , because I think I've reached my ceiling of understanding and accountability in this field . Um , and so like , there's levels to everything .
Speaker 2Right level one is you fucking sit at your desk all day and you don't move your body , so maybe you just need to walk 10 000 steps . Level fucking 10 is like you need the best fucking fitness coach and blood work coach and nutrition coach out there looking for your shit , right , because you're looking for these minute tweaks at that point in time . At first you've got a log in your eye , but then it becomes a smaller and smaller splinter that you're looking for .
Speaker 1Yeah , so level one , it could probably be thought I would imagine you can progress , but it's like you're built on a house of cards versus a , versus a solid foundation and that was me .
Speaker 2Yeah , 100% .
Speaker 1I get by with like let's call athletic ability , good genetics sure you know what I mean yeah , I've got my examples of being pulled back to level one as well . Yeah , yeah , like oh , I'm in great shape and the reality of it is like yeah , I've got my examples of being pulled back to level one as well .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , like , oh , I'm in great shape and the reality of it is like I'm just built this way , like sometimes , and I have to have that realization . Are you really in great shape or are you fucking shamming out three or four days a week , drinking too much , doing all these other things , eating like shit ?
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2And the reality of it is like I don't know , I do eating like shit , yeah , and the reality of it is like I I don't know . I do have good genetics , I I do right . Look like I'm physically fit , but my training age is fucking 30 years , and so like I'm able to overcome obstacles that some people that were starting now wouldn't be able to fucking overcome at all .
Speaker 1Right yeah , you have to think of like what's the jeff that's sharpening the axe every day ?
Speaker 2look like exactly , exactly and so like if you're measuring yourself against someone that's at a level four and you're really sitting here at a level eight , like you need to do different things and you have a professional pond , yeah yourself right yeah , yeah what about level two ?
Speaker 2What about level two ? Two is recognition of identifying your BAM , your bare ass minimum , and what that is like . Then we get into the financial side of things and so . But also that's the real first step towards freedom . Because if you're locked into this cycle of trading dollars for hours , you can't ever break yourself out of that cycle . And if that's all you know and that's that's mostly all anyone knows- and so yeah , it's a .
Speaker 2It's a personal finance exercise of how much do you really need to operate your home on a regular basis and it it's not like a Dave Ramsey fucking cut everything , eat beans and rice . It's like the exercise is exactly what you owe and your obligations on a monthly basis and then what you realistically have to pay for . So like , if you spend $2,000 on food , let's call that $2,000 . Maybe you could cut 500 bucks off of it . Okay , but like we're not asking you to go scorched earth on anything If you a car payment .
Speaker 2If you have a car payment that's built in , like you don't have to sell your cars , and shit like how much money does it take to run your household minus , like steak dinners and all this lifestyle spending ? Because that's what you , you can really control the lifestyle spending . If , if you got everything pulled out from under you today , what would your bills be next month ? Because you wouldn't be doing Netflix and going out to eat three times a week at that point in time If things got serious .
Speaker 2And so that's where your bare-ass minimum comes in . So we established that bare-ass minimum because that's the first number that we're going to try to get to with your investments , and we get to your investment profile later in the cycle . So then the next step , level three , is infinite banking , and we teach infinite banking . Concepts , because that is kind of twofold as well . Concepts , because that is kind of twofold as well . We want you to build your access to capital personally , but you also take back control of your financial house that way .
Speaker 2By using infinite banking , you take control of your finances . So it's kind of a step up from a leadership standpoint . You've got to recognize that . Okay , now you're in it , you're going to take a direct role in how your money moves from here on out . But the secondary thing on that is we're ticking the box on that legacy component , because as you fund your infinite banking , you're also buying a big ass life insurance policy on the back end . So it also buys that peace of mind and essentially like what legacy you're going to leave behind for your family .
Speaker 1Yeah , and this is where , like , the Canadian and American tax systems are kind of flipped on their heads . Right , the Canadian and American tax systems are kind of flipped on their heads , yep , right , where , if you own a business , you want to pull money out personally and you don't want to leave it in the business , whereas in Canada you do want to leave it in the business , you get taxed at a lower rate . So that was one of the things that I know . Early on , just wrapping my head around this whole thing , I didn't necessarily have examples of um , people that were doing it where I live . Um , and then eventually I did see a few and I was like you know what ? Like these are smart and savvy people . I , I think I am one of those people , or I want to become one of those people , and so like , let's , let's build a parachute on the way down and and I , I , I'm being a little facetious with that Like I , I , I understood it more than more than maybe I'm , I'm leading on there , but um , I , I , I , I did , and then I wrote it off and then I was like , okay , I'm not , I'm not doing this . And then I came back to it and I went back and , like , I went back a couple of times . So now November , this November will be opening up year three of funding that um . But I want to jump back a little bit because for some , like I , I don't know the ins and outs of like I want to speak in Canada of opening a policy , uh , personally , like , and whether that would be there , there's different avenues you can take . I mean , I use tax free savings accounts which you guys don't have that same account in in the states where , like any growth on investment , no taxable event ever right . So so there's , there's benefits to those , but , like , if you start pulling money out of that system , you sort of break it . Which I talked about on an episode recently .
Speaker 1I tried to detail the system that we are doing now , which sometimes feels a little bit weird to talk about in depth , but again , I'm just trying to leave a nugget behind for somebody where they're like , they question something . So I don't know , like , if you , if you can do it through through a business , um , then absolutely Like , even a , yeah , you , you can in Canada . And even I don't know if , like , if you , if you're just an individual with a you know , uh , a T4 in America , w2 , right Like when you , right , like when you're where you're an employee , if you can open a holding company and just open the policy within there , uh , but you , you'd still have to take money personally and put it into a corporation . You can't go corp to corp anyway . I'm kind of like rabbit holing a little bit here . But , um , the system , if once you , if you can wrap your head around it , it makes sense . I want to jump back even a little bit more because you , you I don't know if you'll remember my story of , like , finding all that money in our business , right , where .
Speaker 1So that's it's . It's a crazy story , it's a wild story . But also , if you strip it down , whether there was an awareness that it was happening or not , you're automating an account , a sweep account , which we did it very aggressively , very aggressively . We found almost $80 thousand dollars in there three years later , right , right and and again I've told the story again it's on .
Speaker 1One of these earlier episodes of kind of the catalyst to our financial education was like that's rich dad , poor dad , whether you have money or you don't have money , you better have a plan , right . All of a sudden we , we went from spinning our wheels to holy shit , like we actually have a little bit of money and like this is this is the catalyst to never be in this situation
Building Passive Income and Mindset
Speaker 1again . If we can learn and I think that can tie into the level to the bare-ass minimum because we acted like we didn't have that money , because we it what we in our heads we didn't . If we , if we had , if that was in our account and we were aware of it , there's absolutely no way I would . I would go as far as saying we wouldn't have even had a third of it left behind .
Speaker 2I don't think so that's human nature , man parkinson's law You're going to expand to the level that you allow it . That's why sweep accounts are so important and that's why I definitely recommend plowing as much money as you can into your high early cash value life insurance policies before you have the opportunity to touch it , because then you have to physically request it , like then it's a couple days process and you allow yourself to think through that process .
Speaker 2So I mean we have to put up guardrails to protect us from ourselves , right Like if you put $80,000 in your checking account and you're just out with your debit card . You're like , well , why not ? Why not here and there , until it starts to creep and run , and then , to your point , you'd have a third of it left .
Speaker 1If I'm lucky . I mean , I really don't . I didn't have a plan to save money back then . It always seemed like we just never had enough .
Speaker 2The real mindset shift occurs , jay , for people , when they finally send their money out for the first time and then money comes back to them with no work involved 100 that's , that's the app and that's what we try to figure out for you guys .
Speaker 2As quickly as you can come in to get a win . I want a check coming back to you in the first month to three months , depending on dividend disbursements , so that you can recognize that , because then it's just a math equation If you send $1,000 out and $100 comes back and you've got a $500 car payment , you know that if you send $5,000 out , your car payment is now covered . Okay . And then you can start gamifying it like that , and that's the way you're covering your BAM .
Speaker 1And I would imagine the roadblock there is like I don't have $5,000 . How do I do that ? Do you want passive income to be able to pay for your car ? Because if you do , if that's attractive enough for you , you'll get uncomfortable in the short term to make that happen in some way . Again , like you said , not scorched earth , but like you know , I would say back then , like you know , there were times when we were super tight and we didn't do Christmas one year for each other and like that sucked cause you know that that just wasn't , but like it wasn't like that all the time . You know it . It uh , we weren't scorched earth , you know , eating peanut butter sandwiches three times a day , um , but it's yeah . So I actually talked about this one recently . So the first time that I had it actually happen with real money was like so this , this is actually a crazy story . So when I had , when I found all that money , we paid off all consumer debt , student loan and we were left with a chunk of like $33,000 left .
Speaker 1I had a friend who , like we , he I spent time with him in university . We went on like these , these like called dudes , weekends , you know , rent a cottage and 12 guys go just get drunk and be crazy . Um he . So I talked to him from a hotel room in Chicago on one of the summit weekends , um , and he gave me sort of basics of investing and like risk tolerance and just understanding your own profile and this and that , and , like you know , three to five year time horizon , he's the guy who's next in line to be ceo of brookfield asset management . Okay , like , like this guy , even when I talked to him , he was high enough up that he wasn't allowed to invest personally and he's like , if you , I'll help you where I can , I'll give you some basics . If you ask me for like stuff that I can't answer , I'm not , I'm not risking anything here and if you ask me twice , then we'll be done here .
Speaker 1Right , and that was a friend and he was like he had his guardrails up , but , uh , when I saw it happen with real money , it was crazy . But I actually , when I was in Teachers College I don't know why I did this , but I was just messing around like in between , in between classes or something , and I set up this like stock portfolio on Google , like you can set up a fake one , and I put $10,000 into . I put into like I think I put into Google , I put into like Under Armour or something like that . I completely forgot about it and I came back to it I think it was years later , like I want to say a bunch of years later and you see , all this fake money turned into all what would be , all of this more fake money , and you're like , okay , okay , okay , you know what if it was ? What if this was real ?
Speaker 1Yeah , and that's powerful Cause you can , you can't . It's not the same when you just hear someone like , oh , I did this , this happened for me . It's not the same . You have to experience it .
Speaker 2Yeah , yeah , you , yeah , but you can experience it at level though , like the example I used of $1,000 turning into $100 , like anybody could do that tomorrow , right , but then it's about delayed gratification . The reason that no one does this shit , jay , is because nobody can eat shit for three straight years with no roi , or that they they don't get to touch their pleasure synapses enough in the period of time that it takes to grow this and they want it now that's the issue .
Speaker 2It's just like real estate investing . I taught . I teach people how to invest in real estate all the time if you're buying single family homes . The no man's land on a single family home portfolio is is one to ten yeah because , because it sucks you buy that first house .
Speaker 2You and your wife are popping champagne bottles and fucking loving life . You're like we are landlords , this , we are going to be billionaires and free financially , and then you get your first check and it's like 200 bucks after you pay the expenses and the water heater and everything else that went out . Yeah , oh , this is not sexy , this is not sexy at all and like that is a hard thing to overcome and work through to buy the first 10 , if you will , because then at 10 you're at least making $2,000 a month using the same math , and then it starts to turn into a little bit of real money , right , and then so it's the same thing on any type of investment . I mean , we've got a fund investment that people have access to in our group that returns 12 to 16 and a half percent and they pay quarterly .
Speaker 1But yeah , like a debt fund type thing do what ?
Speaker 2like a debt fund yeah , it's a reg , a debt fund , um that does 12 to 16 and a half percent and um the the minimum buy-in is 10 grand . So you buy in at 10 grand and you get a hundred dollars a month . So like that's not sexy enough to keep most people focused in there for the long haul . But the reality of it is if you , if you just do the math on that and you plow whatever you can every month , that's why in the seven levels of financial freedom , we say you will not get rich quick .
Speaker 2That's nothing we ever promise to anyone . But if you work that structure , depending on where you're starting out with the liquidity you have access to day one it's going to be two to seven years until you have that BAM covered and you'll have your current lifestyle number covered If you can just stay in it and stay focused .
Speaker 2That's why resetting that vision is so important ? Because that vision is all that'll keep you going when you get thrown off course . When your engine goes out on your vehicle and you're like we should buy a brand new vehicle , and you're like , well , if we just fix the engine , we keep on plowing this money away and no one a lot . Most people don't have the ability to delay gratification for that period of time , but like , legitimately , your life can change entirely in three years if you can stay in the the cycle for three years I wholeheartedly agree .
Speaker 1You said that the the smallest . So there was actually , as you were saying that there was , another example that it goes way back . I don't know if you experienced this ever , but my first bank account I had a paper route and I so I delivered papers and it didn't pay much at all . It was like a two day a week paper route . Um , you know , I'd get paid like I don't even . I don't even remember 20 bucks a week , 30 bucks a week ? I don't , I don't even know , but I remember seeing cause it was . This was back when you know , like it wasn't all on your phones and online banking . So you'd have this bank book and you'd go and get it updated and whatever , and it was like they paid me . You know , three months later , you see they paid me a hundred dollars , right , and I see a hundred dollars and four cents . I'm like what's this ? They're like oh , that's interest . I'm like they gave me money .
Speaker 1Yeah , Right , I'm a kid , I'm a kid , I'm like what ? And it was the coolest thing to see this line item that , like I knew , I worked for the one .
Speaker 1I didn't work for the other and it's so small , right , it's a thing , it's a thing . And like we're talking interest on a bank account which is like doesn't even keep up with inflation , like it's not . That is not where you put your money Correct . But there are other things that are real avenues and vehicles for for building wealth , and like you just need to see it happen .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's . That's why we're so adamantly against qualified programs and retirement accounts and stuff like that , though , because most people that have worked and put money into those in their 20s or whatever like diligently saved , like they have enough money to have real money kicking out to them every month , but that money is locked up because of the product that they chose and they're not going to be able to realize that for another 30 fucking years , and to me that is like criminal , and that's what I want to save people from .
Speaker 2that's why we talk right like all we focus on is cash flowing assets and like , because what that does is it gives you actual cash flow , which gives you freedom to choose on how you want to spend your time now instead of 30 years from now right I , how many people do you know that have not made it that 30 years ? A lot Right , right .
Speaker 1Right , right it happens . We're not promised .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , I just I .
Speaker 2As long as you're putting your money in in smart things and that's what we like , teach people like you also are shielded from inflation and shit . Like you mentioned All of our real estate that we own if prices go up , the rents go up . If I die tomorrow and my wife owns those properties , in 40 years the rents will have outpaced inflation significantly or at least paced with inflation , paced inflation significantly or at least paced with inflation .
Speaker 1so the cash flow being kicked off by those should keep in line with , like our , our needs or our wants what do you say to someone that that has that thousand dollars in their hand maybe it's like they they , you know , they're not a business owner , they're not , they're not working side gigs and having a little bit extra cashflow , maybe it's a tax return come in and they're like , oh my God , I got a grand or three grand or whatever , and um , they're not . What ? What do you say to that person when they're like nah , man , like I deserve , I deserve this , like I deserve to , this is my money , I'm going to use it . How , how I want to , meaning not going and trying to go down the road you're talking about .
Speaker 2Obviously , I mean that's a broke mindset . I mean that's that's what will keep them working and trading hours for dollars forever , unfortunately , and so like the reality of it is , if you want a different result , you've got to change how you approach things and and like the , the conversation , the internal dialogue that you just had externally , is how 98 percent of people think , or 99 percent of people think like they get three thousand dollar tax return , they want to think about how they can spend 2700 of it .
Speaker 2Thousand dollar tax return , they want to think about how they can spend twenty seven hundred of it tomorrow . And the reality of it is you need to shift that mindset to say , well , three thousand in my example , would give you three hundred dollars a month , and so okay , but what if you were spending three hundred dollars a month , but not just next month , every month , for ever , like ? That's where you have to really change your thought process because , like sacrificing , investing and delaying that gratification today leads to decades and decades of living the life you want to lead , as opposed to that short-term sacrifice leads to decades of enjoyment and experiences , as opposed to I'm going to work 40 hours a week for all these decades and fucking barely scrape by and be at the mercy of my boss or my company or whatever .
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , yeah it's . I just think of so many examples of like , yeah , I just think of so many examples of like that and just how it plays out . You know , sure man , cool man . Well , hey , I know we're kind of getting close to our time here . Where can people like find you and find the book ?
Speaker 2The book is on Amazon . It's Operation Wealth by Jeff Smith . I don't know what it costs now . I think it's nine bucks or something . Check it out , like you don't need .
Speaker 1American so 20 .
Speaker 2Canadians . We're the tactical empire and all platforms . The best place to send me a message is real Jeff Smith on Instagram . I check all those messages and communicate with people that way . But if you're interested in the tactical Empire , we have a variety of products . We have our Inner Circle Mastermind Group and we also have an Accelerator coaching program where you get two-on-one coaching from Sean , my business partner , and I , where we build out your entire plan for your business or your structure at the level of financial freedom of a 12-week period . That's an onboarding program that we have now as well . So you can reach out to me .
Speaker 2I also run the Tactical Empire podcast . I think we've got 300 some episodes out there for that . Our YouTube channel is the tactical empire podcast and it's got over 600 some videos out there training videos on a variety of different things , um , and the book really lays out the framework that we teach and preach in the tactical empire . But if you're
Final Thoughts and Book Information
Speaker 2looking for a community that's executing on this and a group of guys that are really living it , um , hit me up and we'd love to have you if you share our values .
Speaker 1Cool man . And one last question on a completely not serious silly note living in the RFE , how often do you say shit is full ?
Speaker 2We've got pretty big tanks , so only about once a week , only about once a week , because everything flows in there from our shower as well .
Speaker 1So depending on how often we shower and everything else if no one , if you don't know what I'm talking about , watch Christmas Vacation , alright . Thanks , brother , appreciate you , thank you thank you .