Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
Ep 279 | Three Strategies for Balancing Well-Being with Ambitious Entrepreneurial Goals
As Ryan DeMint, I've navigated the unpredictable waves of the real estate market and emerged with strategies for attaining financial liberation. This episode peels back the curtain on my personal battle with the anxieties that accompany entrepreneurial success and my commitment to reshaping my daily routine to focus on the most impactful tasks. You'll hear the raw, unfiltered experiences of transitioning from the trenches of daily operations to a visionary role, and the transformative power of outsourcing to drive a business forward. I invite you into the world of high-stakes negotiations with city officials, revealing the grit it takes to tackle property complications head-on.
Feel the weight of isolation that often shadows the pursuit of success and the intentional steps I've taken to forge genuine connections through coaching. From orchestrating group sessions to cultivating one-on-one relationships, I explore the journey of personal growth alongside professional triumph. I address the continuous struggle with maintaining focus amidst the chaos, harnessing time blocking as a tool to carve out space for well-being and strategic growth. This episode promises a blend of vulnerability and actionable insights, aiming to inspire fellow entrepreneurs and anyone looking to marry financial ambition with personal fulfillment.
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Hey guys, ryan DeMint, hope you guys are having a great day this week. On the podcast it's me and some thoughts, and the reason this is chasing financial freedom, but part of the obstacles that I have are around finances and business, so let's hop right into it. So the last couple of weeks we've had a lot of financial data come out. There's a lot of different aspects of what's going on in the marketplace. People are worried that the real estate market is going to crash or it's going to increase. I mean, everybody's all over the place when I say increase, price is going up on homes. But in the end, what can we do about that? And I'm the first one to raise his hand and say I worry too much about that on a daily basis and it gives me anxiety. And the best way to describe it is I have to be able to listen, consume the data and then figure out where I go with it, but not let it control my day, because that's what it's doing today. Every single day it's a rollercoaster ride of anxiety and I think the only way I know how to help myself in this situation is I've started to time block, so the first two to three hours of every single day. I time block, I put my phone on, do not disturb, and I focus on revenue generating tasks that help me move the business forward, but also really focuses me on what I need to do on a daily basis to grow, and one of those things is making sure that I move myself from working in the business to on the business. And you're probably saying, ryan, you've talked about that a million times. I sure have, and I continue to struggle with it for six years. That is just the reality of where I'm at and I'm starting to realize I have to be able to spend some type of money to get myself out of the business, but I have to do it in waves to where it doesn't keep me up at night and give me anxiety, because that's where I've been. So one of the tasks and projects I'm working on right now is using and I shouldn't say using, comparing cold callers, so our outreach program versus a AI cold caller, and I'm working on the programming right now and I stopped myself about three to four hours into it and said enough, ryan. I stopped myself about three to four hours into it and said enough, ryan, you cannot do this. You have to be able to pass it off to somebody that has the expertise and be able to move forward. So I found somebody through Fiverr that has the ability to do it, has some great ratings and I'm going to let them try. It cost a few dollars, but nothing crazy.
Speaker 1:But here's one of those things that I can have my time back to, where I can make calls, text messages, doing things to help move the business forward. I'm really struggling with and I've said it again a billion times is this fear of missing out when my phone rings. If I don't pick it up, I won't be able to get those people back on the phone, and that's not true and I have to start focusing on, if I'm going to time block for two to three hours every single day, monday through Friday, and I'm going to focus on the tasks that are going to push the business forward, I have to be able to set a realistic expectation for myself and anybody that's calling during that time that hey, if you're calling between these hours, I will call you back in the afternoon because I am out doing whatever. However, my message is going to be on my voicemail. I haven't set it up yet and I know I need to do it. I just haven't got there yet.
Speaker 1:And when I say got there is, I'm distracted because there's another thing going on in our real estate business that we have several homes that we have to raise, knock down however you want to say it homes that we have to raise, knock down however you want to say it and the city officials have basically turned over because a new administration came in and we've gotten fined for these properties, when we had an agreement that, as we sell the new builds on the project, we would allocate X amount of dollars and knock a house down every single time we do it. Now they're wanting us to knock all three down at the same time, which is tripling my budget, which eats up hard-earned cash that we need to keep in the bank to keep moving forward. So I'm going back and forth with a few officials to figure out can they give us some runway to be able to solve the problem but also not fine us? These houses are not in great shape but at the same time, the fines are quite high. We're talking thousands of dollars and that eats up in our budget. That truly eats hard-earned cash up, and I just do not want to do that, knowing that there's more infrastructure that needs to be taken care of on this project and it leaves us with little margin whatsoever margin whatsoever. So hopefully we can come to a creative agreement to where we can honor what we agreed to begin with and be able to move down the street. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Ask the man upstairs for that blessing, because we truly need it On a personal level. Guys need it On a personal level guys.
Speaker 1:All these things in where I'm at mindset-wise has been a struggle, because I've always wanted to try to do everything in this position and I needed to step back and say what can I do differently to help myself grow spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally, entrepreneurship, wise, all that stuff. And it boiled down to one thing and it's stop working in the business and start working on the business. So then I thought about when I was working in corporate America and how I ran call centers. I was in meetings all day and it just was a pain in the butt. But I was able to put a team together that was able to handle a lot of the things that I needed to have done on a daily basis. But that team was already implemented and I created it. It affected my bottom line because I had a P&L to run, but it was a built-in number because I had that additional revenue.
Speaker 1:Now I don't have that luxury, but I have to find a creative way to be able to have team members come in and help me. The first step is creating the AI caller and making sure that's correct. The next piece is I have some outbound callers that, once I can get up and going with the AI, I'm going to compare the two. I'm probably going to kick them off sooner rather than later, so I already have a base to go off of. The next thing is there's some tech in here, that is, I have a VA. She's good at a lot of stuff, but when it comes to YouTube SEO and I'm being very specific is we've grown our channels, we're pushing 3,000 followers, but we haven't hit the monetization because we don't have the watch hours. We need 4,000 hours of watch hours in a physical year. I'm on the hunt for that. I'm looking for somebody that can help us with that and give us an action plan that we can do over a period of time that will allow us to grow those hours and be able to start monetizing. Another side hustle that can bring in money that offsets a lot of the different costs.
Speaker 1:I don't know if I can go all in on YouTube and say, okay, I'm going to put $6,000 into creating the channel. It won't work that way. I'll have to do it over time and gradually work on it. And that in itself is a struggle because I typically want to do things from the shoot and get it done and pull the bandaid off. And I'm learning if I can do it in layers, in tranches, and have goals to where we can incrementally improve our watch time to, let's say, the first run gets us 20%, the second run gets us another 20%. So in a matter of let's call it 60 days, we get a 40% lift in our watch time. Then we're on pace to make things happen. But if I don't map that out and have consistent actions around these tasks, I can't expect myself to be in a better place and do more, because I'm always worried about the bottom line, the numbers, and that just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And then right into our real estate business is I've come to the conclusion after a period of time that we're in the business of building new homes and we have some assets that are existing homes that need to be rehabbed. I don't want to be in that space. So I had the brilliant idea that let's start marketing them off the market not put them on the MLS and be able to see what we can get from investors that would be looking to buy them and flip them, which there's twofold. Out of that, one, we could do the construction work for them. And two, there's also the financing aspect. Or three, we only just sell it and they handle the rest. But in the end, I give us a fair shot to get all three revenue streams, which, in turn, would help us out dramatically. Now can I take that with what we have today and be able to buy more off market properties and be able to do the exact same thing and flip them and go through that process? Yes, wholesaling, I don't want to wholesale, I'd rather buy them, because in the end, it's not worth it to be able to wholesale and not own it. I'd rather just buy them with cash, own it, call it a day, move forward.
Speaker 1:Lastly, guys, is this this is all very painstakingly daunting is the best way to describe it, and I've I've talked about getting into four rooms, but I think I need more than that. I truly need to be able to connect with people on an in-person basis and I'm working on that. But I also need to find a smaller tribe. I have one, but it's virtual. I truly need to have a tribe to where I'm in person. I can connect with them, I can meet with them to have coffee or whatever the case is with them. I can meet with them to have coffee or whatever the case is.
Speaker 1:But in the end, at some point I'll have to get into one-on-one and that's coaching and I have to figure out how to get there. And the only way I know how to get there is starting at a bigger pie, getting into that room, then shrinking that room down to a subgroup and then taking that subgroup and making it even smaller to where maybe it's five or six of us, and then being able to connect with one or two people there, to where then I can actually get that attention but also provide that attention to others and grow, because I know I need to surround myself with like-minded individuals that are God-fearing, making sure that you're doing business. They don't have to be in the real estate space, they just have to be in the right frame of mind and they're looking to grow and connect with others, and that's huge for me. And that is probably the biggest thing I can tell you is my struggle in all this is I feel like I'm on an island by myself most days and I can't get what I need done, and the only way I know how to do that is to surround myself with those individuals.
Speaker 1:But also, time blocking keeps me hyper-focused, because I put goals for that timeframe of things that I want to accomplish, whether it's marketing, text messaging, cold call, outreach or following up with clients on the real estate side or the lending side but I get very specific in what I'm trying to accomplish and I go after it and then, at the end of the day, I set myself up with goals and then I review them.
Speaker 1:I know that's pretty basic, but that's where I need to be, because at times my stomach is doing somersaults because I'm worried and anxious. And I need to stop worrying and being anxious and focus on the things that matter the most my health, my well-being, a roof over my head, my bills paid, a healthy family and that will translate into what I put into my business on a daily basis. Focus on the now and the 30 seconds in front of me and that will change the trajectory that I'm on and that is what I battle every single day. Guys, I hope this helped you. I know it was a little more intimate, a little more sharing my soul, but in the end I just rather be transparent, be open and tell you guys what I'm going through because ultimately, I hope it can help you guys in the long run. Have a good one, guys. I will talk to you guys on the other side.
