Billy Keels  0:00  

If you try to launch a side business without mapping it to your specific corporate skill set, you are going to burn the candle at both ends and waste your most valuable asset, time. In this episode, I reveal how to pinpoint the exact model that's going to accelerate your path to corporate independence, so you can walk into your nine to five entirely by choice. Let's look at the blueprint and let's get you to optionality. Today's episode is sponsored by Billy Keels Advisory Services. If you want to learn more about how to make your 99 optional, just go to makeitoptional.com. Once again, that's make itoptional.com.

Speaker 1  0:41  

Helping you build freedom without losing your edge. This is the Going Long podcast with Billy Keels.

Billy Keels  0:53  

It's so important to find the right model for the skill set that you have when you are building optionality. When you're creating optionality for your life, for your family, to be in alignment with your current set of values-it's super important, and it's-it's literally why there is a specific stop when we dig into this. and And I want to invest an episode of the podcast to be able to share that with you because I think it's really important. And I'm going to use my own example because this is just something that is that that I realized after the fact, and now that I went through it and did it inefficiently, now helping other people to be able to do it in a much more efficient way than I did. And you know, if you've never been here before, I just want to give you a really quick background on me as it relates to corporate. I was in corporate life. I really enjoyed the 26 years. 26 years, five words based in the United States, although I was traveling all over the place. And then another 21 years-I think that's 26. Yeah, another 21 years based outside of the U.S. specifically between home base. Well, home base was between France, Italy, and Spain, and and then working across a number of countries: Europe, Middle East, and Africa, primarily while I've been here, and so enjoyed that. While I was working in my corporate roles, I've had a chance to work across global organizations. So really, a lot of the high-level strategy, and and then also to even in across Europe, Middle East, and Africa was one of the areas that I not only managed a business, led people. It was about $100 million business, and then even had the pleasure, the good fortune to be able to work locally for seven years in a different country, different culture, different language that was not my own, specifically in Spain. And so, along the way, also recognized yes, corporate was really good, father of two, and you know, was able to at the age of 48. Yeah, that was the end of my corporate career four years before. So at age 44, I no longer needed the paycheck. That was my multiple six figure paycheck from the company that I was working for because of, but base bonus, all that other kind of good stuff. So, the reason I'm telling you that because as it relates to the model that is the best for your skills and skill set, if you don't know it, you can waste a lot of time. And what I don't want you to do is waste the most important asset that exists on this earth, and that's your time. So that's why I'm sharing this story with you. Because during this time, like one of the biggest things for me, and one of the reasons I initially started looking for this business on the side while I was performing and still part of the top talent program, I was still traveling what they called winner circle, like presidents club for some. I was going to Hawaii every couple years. It was pretty awesome. I wanted to make more money. I wanted to be able to continue to get the title up until a certain point, and then I realized titles weren't for me. I wanted to have more of my time, but that was initially what got me started. Because later, what I realized it wasn't about the money. It wasn't about the titles. What I was really looking for, and as I talk about optionality, a lot of that was really about how can I have more independence from the paycheck that I needed. Because once I was no longer dependent on the paycheck for my employer, although I really liked the employer that I was working for, I just didn't want to have to be dependent on the paycheck. Once I could go into my role because I wanted to, not because I had to, or because I was obliged to, or because I felt dependent on the paycheck. Oh my gosh, life got so much better. But like most people, most high achievers, I was that, and I've told you about the accomplishments.

Billy Keels  4:25  

But a lot of that in in the early days, because in the early days when you're deciding you want to do two different things, if you don't understand the model that best fits your skill set, you can waste a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of energy. And I don't want you to be like I was because I was burning the candle at both ends, literally, and I was doing that. But of course, I was getting the accolades I could talk to you about. I was in the top talent program. It was one of those things that I really enjoyed. And even early on, there were successes in my corp, in my business, in my side business. So much of the fact that I thought I was going to have a five year. It was going to take me five years to get to that. It only took me a year and a half. Don't know what to say. Actually, you can't see that if you're listening to me. But if you watch the video version, there was a little pace, and I just realized, oh, hang on a second. There's a lot of more, a lot more of you are listening than watching on the videos, but that's okay. Let me get back to the story because if not, I don't want you to go. You're you're a very busy professional. You got a lot of stuff going on. But what I started realizing is at a certain point that I could really see after lots of trial and error that this side business it was going to give me not just the additional money that I was looking for or currency, I like to call it, but this was the path I could start to see that this was going to be the path to making me corporate independent, to making my role optional, and I really liked the corporate game. I did like the corporate game, the big game, and I understand it really well, and I like seeing it now from the outside, even though I understand a lot of what happens on the inside, and listen to this: five years after being outside of corporate, ain't much changed. Not a lot has changed. If you need the translation, because I still keep hearing the same stories over and over and over and over with my clients and people who are going to be my future clients. We're just working on getting together there, and so I realized that the more time that I had, that what did it I need to actually do, and this is the point when you can start to realize what are the skill sets, what is the model of side business going to give you the fastest ability to win to get those quick wins. If we want to use some corporate speak, if you understand the model, that's the thing that's going to help you to accelerate and get to your optionality faster. And that's exactly what I want for you. So it is about understanding how much currency do you have. Number one, because that could be one path. How much control do you want? That can be another variant of which path you go down. Because then after that, you can decide which is just at a very high level, which is the the the best path for you and your skill set and your resources, your context in life. Maybe you want to invest. Maybe you want to build. If you want to know more about that, I literally did an entire podcast on that. Go to episode 615, episode 615. You'll get the entire thing. So I'm not going to invest a lot of time here on that. And then afterwards, the second critical step in terms of understanding which of those paths you go down, and of course, there's a lot more that we can go down, a lot more steps, so that you can get down to the specific, the very specific model that's going to work best for you and for your skill set.

Billy Keels  7:53  

And then after that, it is absolutely critical that you understand what is the number that is going to set you free, that is going to make your role optional because if you do not understand that down to the cent or the decimal place, you can get caught in this loop of continuing to do more and more and more and more because enough is never enough unless you have clarity on what the number is down to the decimal. Once again, you need some more help on that. Not going to go into it here. Go to episode 457, 457. You can check it out. Maybe it's time I do a new new one. When you figure out which model that you want to map to for your specific skill set, so that you can leverage and get there. I just have to tell you in advance because one of the things that I went through is you're going to be in an unfamiliar place. So when you go through the process and you're not feeling secure, you're feeling very exposed. It's part of the process because you're doing something new. You're not familiar with this topic. A lot of times, and I've even had guests on the podcast. Most of the times, people will talk about what if this doesn't work. Well, what if this doesn't work? I want to try this. Let me give you something else to think about. Another question to ask yourself: What if it does work? What will you do then? What if it does work? Had a guest on the podcast not long ago, and I don't remember the episode number right now. Olivier Jadul, he talks about it all the time. What if it does work? That's a much more powerful question. Episode 623. If you want to hear Olivier's, that was a guest episode. Episode 623. What if it does work? That's the thing you should think about because after all of this, and after I inefficiently in the beginning went to the model that worked, the would have worked better for me. I would have gotten there even sooner. Yes, at the end of going through trial and error, and I want you to get there sooner. When I think about where I was, I had 41. Different streams of income that were coming in. I had over $212,000 a year, and I use that number all the time. And if you've not heard it before, I will share that with you. Yes, that was in addition to the corporate salary that I had. This was my little teeny tiny business that was running on the side. Then I had a whole bunch of other very small ownership pieces, but and I don't usually talk about that because sometimes people talk about that as if it was full ownership, and that was not mine. But that was another 400 and some odd units, right? But very, very small, teeny tiny ownership portion. So the thing is, is once you figure out the model, you start to put that model into place. The what is goes beyond just those hard assets that I was talking about before, but there's also this idea and this feeling that you can actually go into your employer because you want to, not because you have to. You're there by choice. That role that is optional, you're opting to go in, even if you're like me, for the last four years of my corporate career, I did not need the corporate paycheck. I was there because I wanted to. Yes, I'm not crazy. I was there because I wanted to. I enjoyed the corporate game, even when I didn't need the paycheck. And that could be you too, right? That's the whole point of optionality. You're there because you want to, not because you have to. Maybe you were like me and you did enjoy the game and you continue to stay there. But once there's something powerful when you're in the right model that works for the skill set that you have, that you've developed, that you've mastered in corporate, and you can actually be there and you realize that you're no longer dependent on your corporate employer, and you still want to be there. The employer gets the best of you. Your family gets the best of you, and guess who else gets the best of you?

Billy Keels  11:44  

You do because you're there by choice, not obligation. So it's about figuring out the right model. When you figure out the model, that sets you on the path. The once you take the first step, then the second step, you start to build momentum. You start to accelerate. Things start to feel real good. So, let's get the model right. I talked to you about that. Gave you some ideas. Two specific steps: investor build. Afterwards, you want to also understand what's the number, so you're not just going after something forever and ever and ever and ever. So, here's the thing: if you want to, if this is you, you know that this is you, then hey, listen, listen to the episode again. If this is someone else that's struggling with trying to figure out what's the right model for them because they're thinking about or overthinking about the side business, then share today's episode, and then go beyond that. Show that you go beyond just sharing. Show them that you care. Make sure that you get to a point where you can sit down, you can have a coffee, you can have your favorite beverage, whatever the case is, and go from theory to practice because that's when you're mastering skill. And from that, what I want you to be able to do is go from theory to practice. That's where the mastery happens. That's when you can figure out what the model is. You can map the right model into your skill set and others. So while you're doing that, guess where I'll be? I'll be right here preparing for the next episode. So until then, go ahead and make it a great day, and thank you

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