Billy Keels  0:00  

I've said it a million times, that every single corporate relationship ends, and when it inevitably ends, every single piece of technology, the laptop, the iPhone, all of that, every single luxury item that you have, if it's the car, whatever, even every single corporate credit card, all of that goes back to the machine. Ask me, how I know, but you know what doesn't go back to the machine, the skill sets that you mastered, the relationships, the ecosystem. And today, in this episode, I'm actually going to take you back to the exact moment when I realized that my corporate career had ended, and I'm going to start to show you exactly what I did with my own multinational corporate DNA, and figure how you can help to get yourself in a position to master the skill set that means the most, so that you don't have to worry about giving anything back to the machine. Let's get started.

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 Make It optional.com Once again, that's Make It optional.com you helping

Speaker 1  1:06  

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

Billy Keels  1:18  

of the main reasons that I love being able to have the podcast, is I can reflect on things that were happening for me. I thought they were happening to me during corporate, but now they're happening for me. And one of them is, I can't believe it's almost been five years since the end of my corporate career, but something happened, and it made me think about what that last actually moment was like what my last dance was like in corporate leading up to handing all of my equipment back, and what I realized in that moment is one of the things that I want to share with you, is like at the end of the day everything stays with the machine, right, all the things stay with the machine, and what I mean by that is it can feel that way, but there's actually not everything stays with the machine, but certain things do, and this was a moment, actually in December 2021 I want to take you back, I don't know when you're listening to this or when you're watching this video, but in December 2021 that was my last dance in corporate, and there was a moment that I like, I got this list after 26 years. It was like it was it, and very fortunately, my last employer, the last company I worked for, I was with that company for 16 years. It was such an amazing experience, and at the same time, I got this list, this checklist of things that I had to give back, right? It was the machine calling for its stuff back, and there was a specific moment that crystallized for me, like I said, in December 2021 and imagine I couldn't actually fit in the picture, but I took a picture that I'm going to describe for you, but what I couldn't get in was the wonderful German luxury sports car, which was massive, and you know, the all of the things were paid for, whether it was insurance, the gas, you know, your typical kind of lease point. It was, it was absolutely amazing, but that can fit in the picture. So come back to me in the flat that I was living in, in Barcelona, Spain, and the center town, and I'm on this like square brown table, it's one of those tables that sits at the foot of a very large white couch, and on this dark brown square table I laid out all the stuff that was on the on the corporate checklist, the stuff that the checklist that said, "Hey, this is what we need back, and I remember it like it was yesterday, and there was this, you know, I have my, my black laptop was at the top of the of the square, and right below that was the charger, and the cable that went on the charger, you know, the one that you plug into the wall, and just to the right of that I had a my my iPhone, and next to the iPhone was the iPad, and next to the iPad I had my American Express corporate card, I had my insurance card, and maybe one or two other little things, but the thing that made me think about having this as an episode today is because this was at the same time that I had managed a business that was $100 million business across Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and I had done, you know, a multiple eight figure sale at the same company, and this was the same company that, when I got started on my business on the side, that I eventually would grow to a six figure business while I was working in my corporate career, and also, you know, I had a really nice opportunity to travel to a bunch of different countries, like 88 countries, during my time in corporate, and like many people at the time, I wanted to do, I wanted to do advance, I wanted to get up the ladder and continue to advance, continue to get promoted and perform at a really, really high level, but what I started realizing, and part of why I'm sharing this, because this is on reflect.

Billy Keels  4:59  

At the end of 26 years, right, I realized that there was a certain moment in time, but what I really, really wanted was I wanted to be able to be independent of my corporate role, that one paycheck, that single source of income, I wanted to move beyond that, I wanted to get to a point where my family and I could just rely on the skill set that was being built to create the lifestyle and create an independent type of of life and lifestyle, and so as I came to the end of the road with that particular example that I was sharing with you earlier, what that made me realize was when I took that picture, that was the moment when it crystallized for me. It was like, and then it just remember going, wow, you know what? The machine, the corporate machine, needs its stuff back. Like that was the moment for me where I realized that this has always been on lease option, right? I was talking about the car earlier, but this has always been the exchange. It has always been. Hey, listen, I'm gonna give you some stuff that's mine, and so you have to give it back. You can't keep that, because at the end of the exchange, I need it back. That's what the machine was telling me. That's when I took that picture. That's what it helped me realize. It was like, oh, okay, none of this was ever mine, even though part of my identity was tied up in that, don't don't get me started out. I want to go down a track, I'm sure that I'll come back to that a little bit, but that was one of the things that that I realized, like all of that stuff, the laptop, the iPhone, the iPad, the card, the insurance card, all of that stuff had to go back, but you know what didn't have to go back, the skill set that I built, part of the skill set that I began to master during corporate life, the relationships that I initiated, cultivated, and grew beyond that, the ecosystem that I was a part of, that I was able to move freely about, I didn't have to give any of that stuff back, because that was a the other part of the exchange. Hey, listen, we're going to give you the opportunity to get your reps to do the things that you need to do, and you know what, as long as you're here, you use them for us. If you're no longer here, how much work did you do? How much skill mastery, skill development, did you, did you put in all of those things? Stayed with me, and that's when I realized that although I went through a really painful moment, and I've shared that before, when I missed my son's third birthday party, those things happened not to me, but they happened to me in the moment, they happened for me in life, because those were the things that helped me to recognize that I needed to take a moment, I needed to take a step back to actually get quantifiably clear, so much to the way that I like, I invested an entire episode around that, in episode 638 that you can go check out, you can check out that episode, it breaks it down, and then that's the exact same pathway to optionality that I like to share with you, because why, first of all, you got to get crystal clear on what it is that you want to do, and more importantly, why you want to do it. After that, it's about how do you integrate your career and your side business together, because what you want to be able to do is provide the machine what it needs. Remember, it needs more outcomes, it doesn't need more of your hours, it just needs the outcomes, and the more efficient you are, the better for the machine, because then you can get more outcomes, right. And then, most importantly, for you, is how do you get to a point where you actually are in control, not just of more of your time, but also to have the income that you're able to generate on one hand, and most importantly, that you're able to keep. Right, making money is one thing, keeping more of it is another, and that's what you wanted.

Billy Keels  8:54  

That's the, that's the perfect trifecta: it's being able to have clarity, being able to integrate your career, and then also being able to control the most valuable asset, the 168 those hours, and the amount of money that you're making and keeping, that's that's how it rolls out, because once I realized that it didn't matter anymore what went back to the machine, like when I took that picture in 2021 I was good with it, I was like, okay, well, that was the exchange, it was just a moment where things crystallized for me, and that's why I'm sharing them with you today, because I don't want you to get caught up in too much of the emotion of it, because at the end of the day, none of that stuff was ever yours. Although you have a great opportunity to develop your skill set, your relationships, the ecosystem that you're a part of, trust me, that stuff sticks around for quite a while if you've done the work, and that's where I want to be able to get through to you to help you understand when you do the work, your company wins and you win. I talked about being able to have that plan, and then at the end of the day, going through that very challenging moment. For me personally, missing my son's third birthday party, but then on the other end of that, and then begin to do the work, begin to continue to do the outcomes, because I was continuing to go to Hawaii as a top achiever, and at the same time I was building 41 additional streams of income that were 100% controlled by me, those streams of income generated over $212,000 minimum per year, while I was working in my day job, the one that I liked a lot, the one that was giving me the opportunity to develop skill set, to master skill set, to build relationships, and so at the end of the day, the exchange, it was a really fair one, because it didn't matter if the corporate relationship ended, if they ended it or I ended it, didn't matter, we were getting both a good exchange, that was the whole point, that's what we should remember, because when I stopped worrying about the relationship ending, like it didn't really matter, I wasn't, I was worried about continuing to contribute at my employer and continuing to build my dream at the same time, it was a fine thing, because at that point it didn't really matter what was going back in the stack, what was going back to the machine, none of that mattered, what mattered was what we were able to exchange, me to the company, the company to me, right? And so, if you get to this point where you're so emotionally charged and you realize that all this stuff goes back to the machine, well, the corporate machine needs that stuff, it needs to give it to the next woman or man who is going to take your place, because they, someone will take your place when that relationship ends. Generally speaking, right, there's some outliers. However, if this is you, hopefully today's episode has been very, very helpful. If this is not you, but you know somebody who's struggling with having to give this stuff back and realizing that it's all over, it's okay. It's an exchange. Let them listen to this story, share today's episode, share it with somebody else, share so that you, they know that you care. And then, at the same time, get on the phone, go meet them for coffee, go meet them for your favorite beverage, whatever, cold, warm, doesn't matter, but have the conversation, because I want you to move from theory into practice. Make this real for you, and if you want help beyond that, well, you, you know where to find me. I ain't hard to find, as Deon says, as I like to say every once in a while. So, while you're doing that, you know what I'll, what I'll be doing, I'll be right here preparing for the next episode. So, until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much,

‍