Billy Keels  0:01  

When you actually experience the ultimate ROI. 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.

Speaker 1  0:19  

Helping you build freedom without losing your edge. This is the going long podcast with Billy Keels. When

Billy Keels  0:31  

you actually experience the ultimate ROI is going to be a very brief episode. And if you have ever struggled with getting started because you're thinking about your side business, you're a busy corporate executive, and at the same time, you really want to have more agency, and you want to be able to do it in a way that makes sense to you and your family, your loved ones. This is a very brief episode that's going to help you break through that and help you to understand what the ultimate ROI, what it actually is, and when you actually experience it, and it actually made me so there's a conversation that I had literally just a couple days ago with someone who started out as someone that I met on the internet and has become a dear friend, someone that, yeah, just, it's like a brother from another mother, kind of thing. And, you know, it made me think also, to back on my corporate experience. And you may be in the actually, in this same moment right now, where you're thinking, You know what, you want to be able to create a separate business. I realized that, hey, listen, if I can create this separate business, is going to help me make a whole heck of a lot more money. And I was really money focused, and because I thought that money when you had money, and this is a result of the way that I grew up, which is I believed, I believed that money solved all problems, and money solves money problems. And as I start to look back, I'm really, really glad to say that I did go through that experience, that it was something that happened for me. And yes, of course, money can make things better. At the same time, when you're looking for your ultimate experience of ROI, there's, there is a different there's a different thing. Because if someone would have pulled me to the side, or, I guess, deep down inside, what I really knew that I wanted to do is I wanted to be relevant for for my family, and I wanted to be able to be in that position that says, Yes, Dad is relevant, and really wanting to be a an example for my sons. So what did I do? Like a lot of people, right, especially when you grow up thinking that money solves all problems, and you hear from your parents over and over, which is the thing that they've learned, and so that's what they taught, because they don't want you to repeat the exact same things that they did, and it was very similar for me. So I worked really, really hard. I was constantly on the planes, trains and automobiles, especially in my early career, and especially before, and I've shared this a lot before, and a lot of that was happening. I was doing a lot of traveling, I was moving up the corporate ladder, I was doing all of those things, until my heart broke when I missed my son's third birthday party, and I've talked about that, but in the moment, it was such a painful thing that happened to me, and in retrospect, It was one of the biggest catalysts that happen for me to change the entire trajectory of my life, one of which helps to include understanding what the ultimate ROI is, which I'm going to get to the point so don't go anywhere. And so, yeah, when you get the money and you get the titles, and you you have all of these things, because those are things that I had during my corporate career, that was a part of my identity, that was a part of what I believed was the most important part of me. But you start realizing that you can only get so many titles, you can only have so much money, and what it really was was when I realized going back to missing my son's third birthday party, what I really wanted was agency to be able to control the things that happened in my life the time, especially, that was one of the things that was the most important for me. And so, as I mentioned, when I went through the pain and the suffering of missing my son's third birthday party while I was sitting in a business meeting talking about, I don't even remember what I was talking about at that moment in time, like today, many years after, you know, 12 years after. I don't even remember what the conversation was about, but I remember the feeling of not being there with my son and not being in part of that moment, or for me, probably than for him at this point in time, because you asked him, and he's like, Well, I don't even remember that you were there or not, but what I did is I realized I took a step back, and it was a matter of saying, Okay, this thing has happened for me. I know that money and titles that's important, but it's really how do I can have more control over my time, my future, and being able to be that relevant person for my family? Specifically for my sons. And I realized that I had this scarcity mindset, right, especially as it related to money, because, once again, I thought money solved all problems, and I had a lot of money, what I thought was a lot of money locked up, and it because it helped me feel comfortable. And so what I realized that it was time for me to do was to start to unlock some of that capital, some of that money that was just sitting there, eroding in the bank that I didn't realize, don't get me on a whole tangent here. And so that's what I decided to do. I decided to unleash a portion of that capital that was sitting there so that I could begin to go down the path that I had already started, which was gaining and increasing my financial intelligence, and I realized that the bank, the money sitting in the bank, wasn't doing anything, so I had to put it into assets that would actually release more cash, like the one $1 bill would make two and $3 bills. So it was multiplying the multiplier effect. And so that's what I decided to do. I decided to go down a particular path where I started investing in alternative assets, specifically real estate. That was the first business that I started to invest in. And of course, when I got started, I over thought it. I over thought it for many, many years. For four years, it took me four years to actually get started. I was a theoretical genius. I knew all the stuff. I knew, all the formulas, but I hadn't actually gone out and made the purchase. I didn't get in the game. It took me a while to get in the game, and once I got in the game, I'm just transparent with you here. I did struggle in the beginning, because I went from this mode of being in the corporate mode, which is a deep specialization, and really knowing your one thing, my sales profession, my sales leadership, being able to set a vision and lead the team and manage a business, all of these types of things, to now becoming the CEO, the chief everything officer, and being able to understand how it was going from moving from that specialization in corporate into that more of a generalist as I started this new path. And so it was, you know, there was moments where, where I struggled, but I will tell you that making that decision to actually get in the game to start, of course, it helped. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Were there issues along the way? Absolutely. Were there high points along the way? Absolutely, it's just a part of the story. But what I can tell you is there's nothing like being able to set your own schedule and recognizing that you are ultimately the person who is responsible for whether you do X or Y. You do not have a boss to answer to. You do not have a board of directors to answer to. It is you that manages your schedule. You make the ultimate decision. Right? That's the thing that I started to realize. But coming back to the conversation that I had earlier this week, and the inspiration for this podcast is I started realizing how blessed I am, how fortunate I am, because I took the action before many years ago. Because when I think about being able to walk through my neighborhood and this, you know, I mean in a European neighborhood in Barcelona, and being able to walk with my to walk with my sons and walk through the neighborhood talking about the things that are important and relevant to them, and I'm sharing things that are relevant and important to me. We're phone free, we're able to interact, be fully present, physically and mentally present, and do that in a way that makes sense for us when I'm able to earlier this week, I even went and I think I'll write about this on LinkedIn, for sure, just being able to have on a Monday at 131 45 to be able to sit there and have a wonderful pizza with my son overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Why? Because I own my time, the agency. The thing that I talked about being relevant for my children, being there, being mentally, physically present. It's the thing that is actually experiencing the ultimate ROI. The ultimate ROI is being able to be present, to be relevant, and to be able to do that in a way which is calm, not worrying about the business meeting, not worrying about the phone buzzing off the off the ringer, or the notifications, all of those types of things. And as I sat with my brother from another mother the other day and what was supposed to be 30 minutes of a call, being able to enjoy two and a half hours of conversation, or closer to two hours, just at two hours, but and to be able to sit there, be in the moment, and not worry about what was happening with time, because the ownership of time and the responsibility of the time belongs to me. And so when you're trying to figure out what is actually the ultimate ROI, it's being able to have control over your time, how it's employed, how you use it, who with whom you are using that time, and how you are best leveraging that time. And so if you've ever struggled with trying to figure out what it. Is that you really want to do? Is it? Is it more about making money? Is it more about having that agency that we talked about? I know you've heard it already, but if you need some help doing that, you can go to make it optional.com. There's a free guide that I've created for you there. Also, too, if you ever want to chat, you can just just reply and get in touch with me there. If you're on LinkedIn, definitely connect with me over there. I'm enjoying so many of the direct message conversations. They're awesome. And if this is not you, but you know someone who's struggling through this today, share today's episode with them and then show that you care. Follow up with them, have the conversation, talk about it, go from theory to actual practice. How you can make this a reality, so that you can have the agency over your time and experience the actually experience the ultimate ROI it's what I want for you. And so while you're doing that, guess where I'll be. I'll be right here preparing the next conversation. So until then, go out and make it a great day. And thank you very, very much.

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