Freedom Blueprint Show

Ryan and Gabe interview Sean to talk about the crucial conversations you should be having and how you can show up as a better leader, business owner, and relationship partner. The guys dive into why it’s important to have one-on-ones with your team members, get to know them on a personal level, and the tough topic of raising children.   Key Takeaways: Who is Sean and what is his superpower? Sean shares what it was like to meet the football player Terry Bradshaw. It’s important to be calm during an important conversation. We often make a way bigger deal of how a conversation went in our heads than how it actually went. How did Terry Bradshaw calm Sean down? Ryan shares his tips for keeping calm in a high-stress situation. The most common way people deal with tough conversations is by avoiding them altogether. Always go to the positive firsts. It really helps ease the tension in the conversation. Gabe shares how he creates an environment for his team to open up in. How can you coach someone to improve their performance if you don’t have the heart-to-heart conversations with them? If there’s something going on in their personal life, it could explain why their performance isn’t up to par. How do you instill these important life skills and characteristics in your children? Gabe had a father who created so much pressure for him. Why do grandparents do so much better than the actual parents? Experience? What makes someone a successful parent? How does Sean encourage his team? You ask them how you can help them. Just have the tough conversation.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High  

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe discuss their plans for the future and where they hope to go. What got them to this level of success will not get them to the next level of success. As business owners and leaders, you always have to be constantly adapting to new things. Our three co-hosts share what they’ve learned throughout the years and how to show up better, smarter, and make a bigger impact on the people they’re serving.    Key Takeaways: If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you’ll never go forward. Ryan is constantly trying to think and move 5-10 years ahead.  Why is it important to think 25 years out?  Ryan shares his long-term financial goals.  You really need better people around you to get to the next level. How do you transition bad (but critical) people out of your organization?  Ryan recently acquired two businesses. What are some of the struggles Ryan is facing right now?  What is Jon’s long term vision and plan?  Gabe shares what his vision is for his business. Meaningful relationships are the key to happiness. Emotional intelligence is key in business. Ryan had to really commit to managing his emotions and not reacting emotionally to things he couldn’t control.  Ryan realized he was being way too hard on his son and he wanted to change that.  The more you change and the more you learn to treat people better, the bigger of an impact you make on people’s lives.  Being tough on people has a lot of negative consequences. It’s not an effective management approach.  Being open to mistakes allows people to relax and actually get more things done.  What are the guys doing to put them in uncomfortable situations?  You have to make a conscious effort to nudge yourself closer and closer outside of your comfort zone.  If you want to make an impact on people’s lives, you have to put yourself out there, even when you don’t want to.  Gabe is grateful that his team holds him accountable and keeps him moving forward.    Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com The 25-Year Framework by Dan Sullivan

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe discuss how to identify, vet, and hire your key team players. You never want your company to be 100% filled with A players. They are always looking for the next best thing and it’s difficult to keep this kind of employee engaged. B players are good, they get their job done, but they’ll never push beyond that, and C players — you have got to watch out for these guys as they can really drag the business down.   Key Takeaways: Let’s talk about A, B, and C players. How do we define A player? It’s risky to hire A players! You don’t want your business to be filled 100% with A players. You don’t want an entire team filled with Michael Jordans, for example. Gabe shares his opinions on why you need a good mix of A, B, and C players. Gabe had one of his employees leave because they wanted to be a manager, and he didn’t think she’d be a good fit for it. Ryan always has a million questions on why someone wants to leave their current job. True A players never stop looking for jobs. How does Gabe vet whether a potential hire is going to be a good fit? As a business owner, you can get overly optimistic about a potential hire. What is a definition of a B player? When people are under pressure, all their skills go out the window and the only thing that remains is their character. Can you train someone on their character? The guys share their tips and tricks on how they conduct the reference check. Identify your C players and get rid of them. They will drag your company down. Business owners spend a lot of their time on C players. You gotta stop this.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe talk about the book they recently read together, Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin, where it talks about how you see money and it gives you a deeper perspective on how you can have a better relationship with money. Money can be an uncomfortable subject for many people, but this is why it’s important to bite the bullet and really take a look at it because it can really be revolutionary and eye-opening to see how you spend, why you spend, and whether you want to keep down that same path.   Key Takeaways: Ryan’s rule is that he will never go on a road trip for more than six hours. Jon has decided to relocate to Florida for seven months! Today’s episode is a book review from Vicki Robin. In the book, Jon really likes the purposeful intention concept on how you spend your money. What is money, really? There are additional costs to chasing money. What is your hourly rate? Once you have this number, now you know when it makes sense to do something, or not do it. Most of the time in society, we worked very little. Our modern age has sort of corrupted this. Ryan’s dad is in his 90s and still working. He said he likes to work because retirement equals death. In the book, Vicki defines what work really is vs. what you do for money. Jon really wants a little more runway with his financial situation, which means he’s willing to sacrifice a little bit now for a better life two years from now. Grinding isn’t hard, but grinding every day without getting results is very hard. You’re not going to have nice things at the very beginning because you’re busy hustling to reach the next level. What advice do the guys have when it comes to grinding without seeing the results? Track how much money you’ve made throughout your entire life. How much do you have to show for it? Jon really liked the dollar-per-hour exercise. It really puts things into perspective. Gabe knows his team has problems with money and they bring those problems to work. If you can get the money piece right, they’ll be happier and more productive people. Jon thinks the word “need” is a very disempowering word. Reframe your mind to “I want” or “I get to” instead of using the word need.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence, by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, by Cal Newport  

Gabe, Jon, and Ryan recap what they were going through in the business when everything shut down in March. Hindsight is always 20/20 and everyone tells you to buy when others are fearful, but boy, psychologically that’s easier said than done. The truth is, we don’t know when the bottom really is and it can be a hard pill for the mind to swallow when your recent investments keep losing cash. The guys talk about some of the critical lessons they learned throughout this process.   Key Takeaways: How do the guys feel about the year 2020? Let’s do a recap. The guys who struggled the most had the $50K budgets for marketing. Gabe lost half of his sales pipeline. Ryan also lost money and wasn’t sure what to expect. It was like it was 2008 all over again. It’s so hard to have a good frame of mind when everything around you is falling apart. You want to buy when there are panic and fear, but that’s easier said than done. It’s so critical to be flexible and nimble when stuff changes. Ryan is just not willing to risk everything in order for him to have an “influencer’s life.” When a society gets prideful, they start to get greedy. Jon is preparing for the downturn and is hoarding cash right now. The market can stay irrational for a long time. The more cash you can generate, the better position you’ll be in when there’s a downturn.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

In this week’s episode, the guys share what they’re doing to invest the extra cash they have in their portfolios. It can be so easy to get caught in the fix-and-flip hustle, but the real gold lies in rental properties that are cash-flow positive. They also talk about what they plan to do if they see another market crash, and how they’re tweaking their portfolios right now so that they are still in the green when it does happen.   Key Takeaways: How does Ryan invest his extra cash? At some point in life, you have to have money to make more money. Saving is critical and in order for you to do that, you have to live below your means. Jon started with $100K. Ryan says $50K is a good starting point. Gabe started with $0. It’s a lot harder and you have to do everything you can to be more resourceful. Jon shares his advice on how to start investing wisely. Okay, you lived below your means and you have some cash now. What do you do with all this extra cash? Here are some money traps you can fall into if you’re not careful. For example, fixing and flipping. Gave shares tax strategies he wished he knew about five years ago. There’s money out there from private investors that you won’t find from private institutions. Jon shares how he got started on one of his very first deals. It helps a lot to keep your full-time job and do this on the side. There are a lot of variables that can happen and that extra income will always come in handy. Everybody’s chasing this seven-figure wholesaling business, but why? Ryan did things smart in the beginning. He bought all he could in rentals. No one really knows when the market will crash. There will always be rental deals in any market cycle. Ryan understands that cash is king, especially when the market crashes. He wants not to suffer along with it. Gabe shares what he’s noticed in people who tend to be the most financially successful in real estate. Why is Jon interested in buying mobile home parks?   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

Ryan attributes the success of his business to how he was able to scale up effectively by empowering his employees to think like an owner. Jon and Gabe agree that life is just easier when they can trust their team when they’re “out.” Your three co-hosts share their tips on how you can make your team accountable and autonomous in their work.   Key Takeaways: Ryan gives Jon some wise dating advice. How do you create a team that thinks like an owner? Ryan attributes this as one of the biggest reasons why his business grew. If the business is going to work when you’re gone, team ownership is the best way for you to go about it. In other parts of the world, people are still living in extreme poverty and their decisions can be critical to whether they live or die. You have to have someone in your organization that’s good at holding people accountable. Ryan shares some advice on how he empowers his people. Jon shares how he treats his team. Gabe is reading a book right now that is blowing his mind on how to best manage people. Ryan currently bought two competitor companies. He shares how he’s going to help them to get to work together. You never want to create a culture where people are afraid to make mistakes. A disengaged employee is the worst thing that can happen in your business. How do you structure employee incentives? Ryan weighs in. Jon asks how do the guys feel about flexible work hours as a policy? If you have the right culture and the right people who care about their job, they’re not going to leave you hanging. As Gabe has evolved as a business owner, you empower your team by helping them decide what are the best system and processes for them to use. Ryan’s process is, let’s define the outcomes together, but let his team figure out the behaviors on how they are going to get there. When you track people’s behaviors, that’s when it starts to feel like you’re micromanaging people. Gabe gives an example of how your team can really surprise you when you just let them do their thing.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Humanocracy: Creating Organizations as Amazing as the People Inside Them, by Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini

For you to just be in business, you have to think. This is why so many successful entrepreneurs have intentional “thinking time” scheduled into the calendars so that they can think about the different sorts of problems happening, and find solutions to them. Gabe, Ryan, and Jon talk about how they structure their thinking time in their very busy lives!   Key Takeaways: Where in the world is Jon right now? The guys are doing a live show for the very first time! Gabe has the most “thinking time” out of anybody. Ryan lives an “organized chaos” life and it’s hard to find thinking time for himself. What does Gabe think about during his “thinking time”? Ryan wakes up in the middle of the night and that’s when he has time to think. Ryan feels like it’ll be more productive if he took a vacation to “think.” How does Ryan manage his productivity? Jon shares some of his productivity tips. Thinking time is so important, it helps make things in your life more efficient. Successful billionaires have “thinking time” scheduled in their calendars. Ryan is constantly “on” and gets a bit of slack for it, but he loves to think about business. How did Jon get out of the work grind and into doing his own thing? It’s hard to be a business owner and not think.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com The Wealthy Gardener: Lessons on Prosperity Between Father and Son, by John Soforic  

Daniel Marco is the CEO and Co-Founder of Growth Institute, the leading online executive education company for C-level executives at fast-growing firms. He is a keynote speaker and a CEO Coach, with a mission to help one million entrepreneurs scale their companies faster and with less drama. Tune in as Gabe interviews Daniel and they discuss some of the common pitfalls entrepreneurs end up falling into when they begin to scale their business in this week’s episode!   Key Takeaways: Who is Daniel and what does he do? What are some of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs are constantly making? A daily team meeting is huge. More doesn’t always equal better. You can scale down, make more money, and be happier! The ideal sweet spot for profit is between eight and 12 employees. Every growth stage your business goes through, you have to go through the “valley of death.” Usually, when you have between 20 and 50 employees, you are having a horrible time. Daniel was happiest when he had four employees. What is Daniel’s “why”? Why does he keep creating companies? Daniel shares some of the growing pains he’s currently experiencing. When you’re thinking about growing, what should you be aware of? What’s Daniel’s BHAG right now? What’s Daniel’s process to help you scale effectively? It all starts with defining what you believe success is. Whenever there is no trust, there is no commitment. No commitment means no accountability. What are some of Daniel’s favorite books this year? Daniel shares what he wishes he’d learned sooner about his career.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Danielmarcos.co Impact X Daniel on LinkedIn The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry, by John Warrillow The Challenger Sale: How To Take Control of the Customer Conversation, by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon  

Jon and Gabe talk about enjoying/loving the entrepreneurial journey you are on and how to learn to appreciate the hustle with a huge smile on your face. Gabe has this dialed in, but Jon, he’s still trying to learn how to enjoy the process and he takes some time to ask Gabe how he’s achieved this seemingly impossible balance.   Key Takeaways: Why is it important to actually “enjoy” what you’re doing and the journey that you’re on? Gabe goes first. When entrepreneurs get burned out in their business, it always comes down to them not enjoying what they do. When you’re starting off and building a company, yes, you might be doing things that you hate, but don’t make that the status quo. Jon finds this concept difficult because he likes doing certain tasks but he doesn’t “love it.” How do you enjoy the journey? Gabe loves to have fun in the morning before he gets to work. Gabe shares what he loves about his job. How often do you keep employees around when you know in your gut they’re not a right fit? What are your roles as a boss/CEO/Founder? Jon shares how he’s kept his employees happy over the years! You can have more joy in your business when you’re not having to micromanage your people. People want to be treated like adults. When you empower them, it makes it easier for you. Jon shares some of his best employee hires and what gets him excited. We are so consumed by our work that our work becomes our life. When do you have time for fun? Jon realized he doesn’t have to be so serious all the time. He’s trying to have fun during the team calls. When you’re having fun, you make better decisions. So embrace it!   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

When you’re busy building a business, the most important thing for optimal care is your sleep schedule. If you don’t get the right amount of sleep, it will throw everything off balance. The guys discuss their sleep routines and what they’re doing to make sure they dial in their sleep habits so that they’re at their best as business owners and family men.   Key Takeaways: If you’re not sleeping well, then your day is going to be way worse. Ryan did some tests and realized he simply can not wake up at 5:00 a.m. It just doesn’t work for him. Ryan doesn’t do any alarms now. He just works better when he sleeps. Jon needs more than eight hours of sleep to function. He’s worried he’ll oversleep and needs an alarm. Gabe talks about falling asleep on the couch and if he does get a good quality of sleep or not. What kind of sleep hacks do the guys use? Jon is intense when it comes to his blackout blinds! What would be a game-changer for sleep? Sleeping at the right temperature! Gabe shares what he’s noticed when he’s wearing his UV protector glasses. The lighting in your house is also critical! Let’s talk about heart rates! Gabe dives into how saunas, cold water therapy, and fasting, help him recover at night. Jon is really into the Wim Hof breathing method.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Ryan is on the road right now about to reveal some nerve-racking news to a business owner that Ryan recently bought a business from. Ryan is trying his hand at doing a merger & acquisitions deal that will hopefully net him an extra $3 million. Jon and Gabe ask him some follow-up questions as they get to know what goes behind a deal like this.   Key Takeaways: Ryan is on the road! He is about to tell a business owner (who Ryan recently bought his business from) that he also just bought his largest competitor. He is unsure how this guy will react. The business owner is a vital person in the business right now. How many of the employees does Ryan want to keep in the business after he acquires it? It’s so important to have a mentor to help you navigate these uncertain waters. There’s a good chance that within a year you will lose 80% of the employees. Why is Ryan going to tell the business owner this information? Jon and Gabe aren’t sure why he needs to know. For many business owners, letting go of a business is a hard thing to do. Ryan believes he can sell this business for 8X by combining both companies he bought. Why did Ryan pick a traditional business vs. a real estate business? How did Ryan finance and buy these two businesses? What’s the main reason Ryan wants to do an M&A deal? Ryan is currently focused on building the right culture for these two businesses. How does Ryan know when he’s got a good COO on his team? Ryan doesn’t believe Traction is the right fit for a team of more than 100 people. How is Ryan structuring the equity for his COO? Ryan is excited for the new challenge ahead!   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Traction: Get A Grip On Your Business, by Gino Wickman  

Mindset plays a huge factor in whether you’re going to get out of the comfortable and into the uncomfortable. The guys discuss why working on your mindset and finding good people in your corner are critical milestones to becoming a millionaire (or whatever goal you’re trying to hit right now). When you work on your mental state, everything else unlocks!   Key Takeaways: A limited mindset will not get you far in life. What kind of limiting mindset beliefs did the guys have to face and overcome? It took Jon a long time for him to get enough courage to quit his full-time job. Even though he was making more money in his real estate business! Fear is the number one hurdle to mindset. You have to have an assertive mindset if you want to break out of the nine-to-five mold. You need to put yourself in uncomfortable conversations. You have some “professional” mentors out there in the real estate space that charge you a lot of money but don’t actually walk the walk. Should you work for someone for free? You want to develop your own pitch to find your mentor. Before you pitch your mentor, really do your research, find some common ground with them, and connect from there. How do you avoid drama? Habits are what carry you and they give you the baseline you need to keep going. When you do your very first deal, it’s incredibly stressful to do, but one after another, after another, it gets easier. You can breathe. The guys talk about horror stories when it comes to hiring staff. When you find out a team member is stealing from you, it can really affect your mindset. It’s unhealthy holding in anger. You’ve got to release it. If you need to hire a therapist to help you with it, do it!   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

Gabe is a master when it comes to biohacking and eating food in an optimal way. Jon and Ryan both know and understand the importance of food, but how can you fuel your body right when the day just gets so busy and you’re always on the go? Listen in as the guys share their biohacking tips on this week’s episode and how to eat in a more health-conscious way. Being too busy to eat properly is not an excuse!   Key Takeaways: Gabe is the master in this field. He’s actually experimenting right now with nicotine, which might sound a bit counter-intuitive. When we think of nicotine, we think of smoking, but nicotine is a natural plant. Every person on this planet has a vice. Don’t want to be addicted to anything? Get over it. We all eat food every day! There’s nothing wrong with drinking a cup of coffee every day. Let’s talk about diet! Ryan grew up pretty vegetarian as a kid. How can you get your kids to eat healthily? Our bodies need fat. The guys talk about the paleo diet. Did you know chickens and pork are the most unhealthy meat to eat at a restaurant? What is your meat eating? It’s very important to know! It’s not easy to get quality meals when you’re on the go! Ryan shares all of his kids are in sports and they’re always on the go. They don’t have time to sit down for a family dinner. Gabe is so strict on his food diet because he has health issues. So, he makes an effort to feed his family right. Make easy food choices by just having good, healthy, and quick options in your kitchen. Gabe shares one of his favorite hacks when it comes to health. Always too busy? Then don’t eat. Fasting is actually good for you. Jon loves fermented food like kimchi. It’s not so much what you eat, but what you don’t eat. There are just certain things you just have to stop putting into your body. Do a reset on your food. Gabe explains how.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe do some quick housekeeping items and share what they’ve been up to before diving into today’s main topic and that’s — meetings! As a leader, it can be hard juggling so many balls at the same time and managing team expectations, high tensions, and more. Meetings help everyone get on the same page, but they can be hard to wrangle if you don’t have a set meeting agenda. The guys break down their meeting process and also share resources on how you can help your team become more efficient.   Key Takeaways: Ryan had the best two weeks ever! He went with his family to Disneyworld. Jon did an ayahuasca trip recently and he asks, “Why do we take stuff so seriously all the time?” The best way to have fun is not to make a big deal out of unexpected things that come up. A business is ultimately the reflection of its owner. What kind of owner do you want to be? What do you do as a leader when an argument breaks out and tensions are high? Ryan is considering buying a business, but there’s one big thing that’s apparent: they have a culture problem. You can read all the books you want, but that doesn’t mean it’ll change your core feelings on the matter. There are a lot of things you can’t control in life. It all comes down to how you plan on reacting when they do come up. A big fault a lot of leaders have is that they’re not willing to deal with conflict. Gabe is learning to lead with questions instead of assuming. How do you get someone to buy in when they have self-limiting beliefs about the world and themselves? There have been so many times where you say something and people ignore you, but if you have someone else say the exact same thing you did, things start to click for the person you’re trying to mentor/teach. Sometimes you just have to connect people directly to the resource and not to yourself. How does Gabe get buy-in from his team? Each person has a different love language. As a leader, you have to know what those are. Ryan shares how to set the right expectations for your team and how to make sure everyone’s opinion has been heard. Another meeting tip: Turn your darn phone off during meetings! What makes an effective meeting? How can you get a meeting to run smoothly? Why is having a daily huddle so important?   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com The Outward Mindset: How to Change Lives and Transform Organizations

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe all have 24 hours in a day, and with family and other career responsibilities, it can be tough to get everything you want done on time. The guys discuss what they have done to get more of their time back to spend it on things they care about and they also share some best practice strategies on how you can learn to delegate.   Key Takeaways: The more limited time you have, the more efficient you are. Ryan always can get more done when there is a time constraint. Jon understands if he has unlimited time on something, he can take all day to accomplish it. Gabe was trying to figure out how to get the most out of the time he has. Does this task give you energy? Write down what you do on a day-by-day basis and see if you can automate it. What does Richard Branson do differently compared to other entrepreneurs? Gabe noticed a big difference in his children’s behavior when he limited their screen-time activities. Children are addicted to their phones. It’s actually quite scary! It’s so rude to hop on your phone when someone is talking to you! What tasks or things has Ryan done to get some of his time back? Jon shares what he does to get his time back. Are you an employee in your business or are you the owner? Is it possible to set your day up so that you’re only doing things that you like to do? Define what happiness means to you first and then strive for it. Ryan understands that with the extra time he has on his plate, he’ll drive everyone at home crazy, so he needs to put it into something. It’s easy for entrepreneurs to keep moving on to the next thing, but we really need to take a break and see what it is we want first. If you’re coming home drained every night, you need to do a self-audit and figure out why.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself Book by Mike Michalowicz

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe all have had to work with a business partner or a COO at one point or another. In fact, Ryan right now is going through the process of finding his number 2 man for his company. Your three co-hosts discuss the types of personality traits you should look for in your business partner, things to ask him/her straight away to know if they’re a good fit for your company, and even share strategies on how to split the business equity.   Key Takeaways: Ryan is trying to hire a business partner right now. Ryan has a love/hate relationship with having a business partner and not having a business partner. Jon shares how he and his business partner structure the business. What should you be thinking about upfront when it comes to bringing on a business partner? Ryan says you have to make it really clear how the day-to-day should be run. Gabe agrees, you want to make it so appealing so that it doesn’t make sense to leave the operation. How should you structure or talk about the business equity? The guys talk about their personality profiles and how it compares with their business partners. Sometimes the people who come up with the best ideas don’t always end up being the best people to execute those ideas. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. What personality traits should you look for in your number 2? How well are they as a leader? A good number 2 should be able to understand systems and processes but also listen to their people. CEOs always wanna go bigger, but they don’t notice or acknowledge all the hard work the team has put into just making it possible to make it to the halfway point. A COO’s job is to talk through the possibility and help make the CEO’s vision and dreams a reality. Have more questions? Feel free to reach out to Ryan and Gabe!   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

Jon, Ryan, and Gabe sit down to discuss what are some of the fastest ways to increase your net worth. The guys discuss the differences between owning a business and pooling your resources into real estate. They also reflect on some of the mistakes they made early in their career that halted/slowed down their growth.    Key Takeaways: What’s the fastest way to double your net worth?  The major two ways to build your wealth is starting a business and/or real estate. Real estate is a long-term play.  Don’t get caught in the transactional rat race. The hardest thing about real estate is that it’s difficult to scale. What’s Jon seller’s avatar?  When it comes to selling a business, Ryan shares his thoughts. Ryan started a real estate business and looks back and some of the critical mistakes he made early in his career.  Should you buy a business?  Gabe shares an interesting and niche business his neighbor is in.  What makes a business sustainable is your leadership abilities. Don’t buy a business until you’ve understood how to run a business.  Ryan feels he is not old enough yet to just be a passive investor. He wants to be involved and he wants to better understand the industry.    Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

It’s the dream for many of us to have passive income, but how passive is passive, really? The guys break down a couple of “passive” investments that you can get into in real estate and some of the pros and cons of each one. The biggest lesson here is, know your numbers and know when you want to stop or pseudo-retire.   Key Takeaways: There are very few things that are “truly” passive. Lending money is a passive way of earning money. Ryan recommends that you don’t lend to people you don’t know or you don’t trust. What’s a typical contract look like when you’re about to lend someone money? What do you need to be aware of when it comes to personal guarantees in a contract? The guys discuss what a lender policy is and what you should be looking out for in that contract. Let’s talk about property taxes. What kinds of returns can you get from private lending? What do you need to know about syndications? It’s riskier but you also get a bit of the actual property under your portfolio. What do you need to know about commercial licenses? How much time does it take to manage a mobile home or a storage facility? Jon partners with a property manager when it comes to his mobile homes. How does Jon structure his partnerships? Gabe says a lot of people fall into a trap where they’ve invested a lot of their cash to the point that they don’t have enough liquidity in their bank accounts. Making money can be addicting, so have a number for yourself. Ryan shares how you can be smarter with getting more cash flow in your business. Sometimes you need to step back and just do the numbers. Gabe doesn’t have a 401(k). He needs cash flow to live.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Family is important, so picking the right life partner is critical. Life throws you a lot of curveballs and kids can also add an extra level of complications. If you have a good partner by your side, then your challenges and your business will be easier to bear when things get tough. Gabe and Ryan give their best “married guy” life advice and Jon shares what he’d like to find in a woman.   Key Takeaways: Your family is more important than your business. However, your business will do better if you marry the right woman. It is your internal environment that makes you happy, not your external circumstances. If you come home to a toxic environment, it’s very difficult to focus on what matters in your business. What is a perfect relationship? Men identify themselves with their wives’ happiness. You need to get rid of this notion. You can’t make the other person happy. Should you and your wife have separate bank accounts? Does your spouse make good financial decisions? Do you want a spouse that has no desire to work? Some women end up losing their identity when they stay home and work. These are things men need to be aware of. Gabe doesn’t think a woman is designed to stay at home all day with the kids. She needs hobbies, activities, a life outside of the family. Of course, it depends on the woman. Ryan married young. You aren’t truly married until you have kids because it really tests your relationship to a new level. According to a study, people who live together prior to getting married end up having a high rate of failure in their relationship. If Ryan could do it over, he would have liked to space out having children and being able to enjoy more of the fruits of their labor first. Gabe can relate. He almost got divorced because he was grinding in his business and had three kids within four to five years. Don’t stress yourself out like that.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Before you start hustling 24/7, it’s important to figure out what your number is. At what point do you consider yourself, ‘making it’? And when you do make it, what do you want your life to be after the fact? Do you still see yourself working on the business? What kind of lifestyle do you want to have? Find your number and then build a plan around it.    Key Takeaways: Can you be happy without money?  What’s the number you need where you feel like you don’t have to grind anymore?  How much do you need currently? Aim to replace it with passive income. Once you’ve hit your number, what do you do after that?  There’s a difference between the amount of money you need to keep you happy vs. what gives you peace of mind.  Doing something you love everyday is not going to necessarily make you happy.  Don’t get trapped into always wanting and striving for another level.  Gabe has different levels of wealth that he wants to create for himself.  Whatever your number is, double it or triple it for when you get married.  The guys notice that the more involved in the details, the less happy they are.  Sometimes you have to let go of the perfectionism and just let people do it their way. Do you want it done or do you want it perfect?  Gabe has a pyramid that has 15 core values on it.  What would be your dream lifestyle?  If you don’t know what you want yet, then just start somewhere and work towards it. Refine as you go.   After 2-3 months of achieving a certain level, you end up getting used to it and taking it for granted.    Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Do you feel like you have to grind 24/7 before you can really enjoy the empire you’re building? Gabe, Ryan, and Jon say no. In fact, it’s better you pop your head out of the hustle every now and again and spend it with family, spend it with friends, so you can reward yourself and remind yourself what it is you’re working so hard to achieve. Don’t wait for a divorce or to be completely isolated before you feel like you’ve “made it” in your business.   Key Takeaways: Get out of the weeds in your business and start thinking more about the future picture. When you’ve built your business consciously, you can travel and live life more spontaneously. What structures did Ryan put in place so that he could go traveling for 120 days? People are either motivated by money or by others. What did Ryan have to give in order for him to leave his businesses to go traveling? You need to get away from the daily grind so your mind can open up and grow and, most importantly, brainstorm. Ryan’s employees have a mandatory two-week vacation. This allows Ryan to see what happens when they leave and what holes start to come up when someone tries to fill in. You’ve got to build memories with your family and friends when you’re grinding. Make sure you take time for your hobbies. How does Gabe live his best life? Creativity flows when you’re relaxed, not when you’re stressed. You really do need time to think and reflect. The things that are easy to do are also the things that are easy not to do. Try changing your environment and work outside. When you work outside, it does not feel like work. You don’t have to wait 10 years to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Give yourself little rewards here and there.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

Gabe, Ryan, and Jon understand all too well how distractions can really derail your entire day. If you feel like you’re getting pulled in a ton of different directions that aren’t moving the needle, then it’s important that you listen to this episode! The guys share how they minimize their distractions by being conscious of what they decide to take on.   Key Takeaways: Gabe manages his distractions by having an assistant. It’s a game-changer. Gabe knows that email is a huge time-waster for him and so his assistant tracks how much time he spends on email. The biggest trick is that Gabe doesn’t even look at his email. His assistant does and they do a call about it. Jon agrees. The first hire he does is a personal assistant. What’s the best communication platform the guys use to communicate with the team? Why does Jon love Google Voice? The least responsive employees tend to be the most productive. Callrail can be a great tool to use when you have a potential sales lead coming in. There is software called Robokiller which won’t allow spam calls to come through. Ryan has a hard time letting go and filtering his messages/phone calls. “Do you have a minute” meetings are killers. Jon really doesn’t like to be contacted. You have to get your day-to-day time down to 10 hours a week. Look into why you have so many distractions. Is it because you haven’t empowered your team enough to make decisions? How does Ryan best manage his distractions?   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Robokiller.com Voice.google.com Callrail.com No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs: The Ultimate, No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners, Guide to Time, Productivity, and Sanity, by Dan Kennedy Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself, by Mike Michalowicz Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders, by L. David Marquet

Your three co-hosts, Gabe, Ryan, and Jon, discuss why it’s so critical to know your numbers and what you should be thinking about when it comes to tracking key metrics. You should know your ROI on each of your marketing channels. Do not chalk it up to “branding.” If you’re spending time or money on it, there’s a way for you to track it.   Key Takeaways: How well do you know your numbers? Unfortunately, our education system doesn’t teach us accounting. Don’t aim for perfect; aim for good enough. A huge number of businesses don’t know how much they make per marketing channel. You also want to narrow down and see if it’s a lead gen issue or a closing issue. People love knowing if they’re winning or losing. The basketball coach, John Wooden, never focused on winning. His focus was getting the best out of everyone. Focus on what you can control. Even if you’re a solopreneur, you still need to know your numbers. How can you scale or even grow if you are in the dark about your margins?   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com  

Jon Carcone, Gabe Garcia, and Ryan Robson sit down to discuss the why behind your goals. Goals can be great, but they can also work against you if you’re not conscious about where you want to go in life. The guys discuss the acronym HEART and how you can apply it to your goals, drilling deep into the purpose behind your goals, and defining your overall mission in life in this week’s episode.   Key Takeaways: Goals can get you where you want to go, but at the same time, they can distract you. A goal without a finish date is just a wish! How do you know if you’re winning or losing when you set a goal? How do you define a “next-level” goal? Your goal should be enhancing your purpose in life. The goals that you currently have, really look at them and make sure they’re not just “vanity” goals. What drives people more? To avoid pain or the satisfaction of accomplishing something? You have to have a powerful why behind your goals. What are HEART goals? It’s incredibly important to bring your significant other on this goal journey with you. Right now, Ryan is not being challenged. He has a high-achieving goal just so he can say he did it. Retirement is overrated. Why retire when you keep on doing what you love? Gabe shares a story of a mastermind buddy striving so intensely for a monetary goal, and not really realizing why it was so important to him.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com

It can be a dream for a lot of entrepreneurs to run a multi-seven figure business, but what most people don’t see is how much profit that business actually makes. With so many employees on staff, you could end up making less money than someone who runs an incredibly lean business. Don’t fall into the scaling-up trap! Your three co-hosts, Gabe, Ryan, and Jon discuss some of the pitfalls they fell into when they tried to grow their businesses.   Key Takeaways: What have been some of the traps Jon and Ryan have fallen into when trying to scale their businesses? Jon was terrified of having overhead expenses and hiring his first employee. He went six years before making his first hire. Ryan thought he was being smart when he negotiated his employees lower than what they were asking for. Ryan now tries to pay his employees more than what they’re asking for. One good person, one rockstar, is better than three average people. Ryan wants a lean organization with the best people ever. Gabe has seen hiring people on 100% commission just doesn’t work. What’s the mindset behind scaling your business? Just because someone has a multi-million dollar business doesn’t mean they are netting more than someone making under a million a year and running a lean business model. Our growth as an entrepreneur is directly linked to our willingness to let go of control. The main stress of the business comes from the employees. What’s your sales process? Ryan had one sales guy corrupt their entire sales team. One bad apple caused the business over 80% in revenue loss. When Gabe tried to scale, he was just pouring cash in and his bank account became incredibly slim. It’s important to try and scope out all the things that can go wrong in your business.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com Joinhandshake.com Symplicity.com

Ryan Robson, Jon Carcone, and Gabe Garcia are all real estate investors that have created an impactful lifestyle within their business. To kick off the first-ever episode, your three co-hosts share a little bit about themselves and how they got into real estate.   Key Takeaways: Who is Jon and how did he get started in business? Jon is not a risk guy, so when he started in real estate, he was still working his full-time job. It took him three years before he felt comfortable enough to quit. Who is Gabe and how did he get started in business? Gabe went to school for music and quickly realized he didn’t want to be a starving musician. Who is Ryan and how did he get started in business? Ryan wanted to get into real estate and was told that the best way to start was learning how to underwrite deals. He spent two years in an office with a window determining the values of properties. What’s the pain you’re feeling right now and is the reward you’re striving after worth the pain? Pain is an important motivator to change the way you’re currently living.   Resources: Freedomblueprintshow.com The 4-Hour Workweek, by Tim Ferriss The Richest Man in Babylon, by George Samuel Clason Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter