Chasing Financial Freedom
Chasing Financial Freedom
Ep 303 | Uncover 5 Revolutionary Insights to Elevate Your Health, Well-Being, and Business Success
Join me as I sit down with the inspiring Philip Blackett, affectionately known as "The Special Package." Discover how his journey from Memphis shaped him into a successful entrepreneur and author. We explore his innovative e-commerce venture, Home Spa Essentials, which revolutionizes relaxation by bringing the luxury of a spa experience into your home. With products ranging from massage chairs to infrared saunas, Philip shares his vision of making self-care accessible and essential for achieving a balanced and fulfilling life.
Work-life balance stands at the forefront of our discussion, where we unpack the toll career ambitions can take on personal connections. Philip's anecdotes reflect the universal struggle of prioritizing family over the relentless pursuit of success. We touch upon the societal tendency to equate worth with financial success and emphasize the wisdom found in traditional work-rest cycles. By sharing stories of maintaining harmony between work and personal life, Philip offers insights on valuing gratitude for life's essentials over material wealth.
As Philip approaches his milestone 40th birthday, we celebrate his dedication to supporting others in their pursuit of health and happiness. This engaging conversation shows his passion for merging business success with personal well-being. Together, we acknowledge the invaluable nature of health and how it's as crucial an asset as time itself. Tune in to hear Philip's heartfelt reflections and learn how his unique approach to business and life might inspire you to rethink your journey toward a more balanced and fulfilling existence.
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Hey guys, ryan DeMint from Chasing Financial Freedom podcast. Hope you guys are having a great day. Today On the podcast we have Philip Blackett and I like his title the Special Package and I'm going to leave it at that because I think there's a lot we can go into. So, philip, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, ryan. Happy to be here with you. You're more than welcome.
Speaker 2:I know it was a little bit of a wait, so thank you for waiting and coming on the show. Before we get into what you're doing, can you tell the listeners a little about who you are? Yeah, I'll try to be as brief as I can, because I'm coming up to 40 years of life now, so trying to say who I am in like a minute or two is pretty daunting. Ryan, it's a pretty big question. So yeah, long story short.
Speaker 2:So my name is Phillip, born and raised in the South Memphis, tennessee, went to school in North Carolina, worked on Wall Street a little bit corporate America a little bit, done some entrepreneur things a little bit, get the gist a little bit, but in any case, outside of that, I'm an entrepreneur and author. More importantly, I'm a husband and a father, and and yeah, the special package is actually a nickname that my grandmother gave me, um, and so basically sharing that she believed that god gave all the right abilities and gifts in one person with me, um, and she just said it was all wrapped up in one special bow, hence the term special package. She gave me, um, but yeah, all in all, excited to be here with you Awesome.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit about what you're doing, because it sounds like you're doing a lot. So you're an entrepreneur and an author. So what type of entrepreneur are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so more so e-commerce, I would say, ryan. There's a couple of e-commerce stores I'm building, in particular, one that focuses on health as well for people. So, as I mentioned before, I turned 40, literally in about a month from now, and for a lot of people like, reaching the age of 40 often brings up the reflection of what has my life been like up to this point, and either it could be one of excitement or one of worry and anxiety, hence prompting a midlife crisis for some people. But I assure you, ryan, I will not be shaving my head bald or getting a motorcycle, but nonetheless, the thought that comes to my mind is, if I truly think of this as a midlife or midpoint for me at 40, let's say, okay, I'm not the best at math, but that means the second half leads me to 80. And so the goal that comes to my mind is okay. If that's the case, what do I have to do to help my chances of reaching 80? Because I realized not everyone reaches 80. My grandparents didn't reach 80. I had a high school classmate of mine pass away a few days ago, before I turned 40, and he was around 40 years old too, so it's not guaranteed. So one of the things that came off to my mind was what's something that can be helpful for people to help their chances get to that milestone of 80? Or maybe it's their 50th wedding anniversary, or maybe it's their 50th wedding anniversary, or maybe it's seeing their kids graduate from not just high school but college, or see them get married or have you have grandkids. So health became a big part of it for me, and wellness.
Speaker 2:But more importantly really, the focus is on what I would say is the concept of home spas. If you think about a day spa that people go to, they usually treat themselves out nice. Hey, it's like a nice anniversary gift for your loved one. Or hey, like things are really stressed out at work. I just need just a time off. Oh, let's have a spa day and it's nice for that one point in time.
Speaker 2:But then you get right back in the swing of things. The real world hits, the kids call you and that sort of thing. So the concept is what if we're able to help bring the day spa into the home so you can actually recover on a daily or weekly basis, not just a once every year sort of thing, but be able to do that from the convenience and privacy and comfort of your own home, and so that's one major thing that we're focusing on being able to do that to help Americans live longer and enjoy life more through their own home spas. So I think that's a big part of when it comes to entrepreneurship. When I'm focused on tying it in with financial freedom is the sense of hey, what's the point of having financial freedom, ryan, if you don't have your health and wellness to enjoy it?
Speaker 1:You've got to have your health and wellness, otherwise you can't go anywhere. God, I was reading an article somewhere, and I can't remember where, but they were talking about younger generation. You're 40. I just turned 50 this year, so I got a couple years on, you, with this gray on my chin and on my head. They're talking about this younger generation that's trying to climb the corporate ladder and they're never satisfied. They hit one level and then, boom, they're not happy. Boom, they go again and they're still not happy. And it's all around money and they're not taking care of themselves. Their mindset is pretty much trash. They're depressed and they wonder why they don't have fulfillment. And it's the number one thing is you got to take care of yourself. You got to fill your tank back up every single day, or every week, however you want to look at it. Otherwise, how are you going to be any type of service to anybody else?
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause I think a lot of people in this younger generation tends to marvel after the word sustainability and most times when people talk about sustainability, they're talking about primarily the environment. How do we leave the world a better place for our kids and our grandkids? But what sustainability is that keyword? Sustain? But what sustainability is that keyword sustain? How do you sustain yourself when you're going about these career goals of yours, to make it to the next job title, the next promotion, the next pay grade?
Speaker 2:Oftentimes you see it and I've been in that case too. I used to work on Wall Street, so I understand. Beyond nine to five, it's like more, like nine to nine, 12 hours you're working on in and you're just saying to yourself hey, I just got to get through it, I just got to buckle up. Drink my energy drink. I'll miss the gym today, I just can't do it. Maybe next day, maybe next week, and you just focus on what you think is most important.
Speaker 2:But the problem is the job in this instance will take of you whatever you give of it and they'll often demand more. But they're not necessarily going to be your biggest advocate to say hey, philip, hey Ryan, you've been through a lot here. Why don't you take some time to get yourself in a better place, relax a little bit, recover, do some exercise, do some sort of thing with your diet that can help you do this for the long term. So this is not just a battle of attrition, but this is more so a sense of saying hey, like Ryan has the tools and the ingredients needed to go on this arms race, so to speak, and outlast your competition versus those that burn themselves out or completely take themselves out of the job altogether.
Speaker 1:And I was in corporate America before I did running businesses, entrepreneurship and so forth, and working seven days a week is one not healthy, and two really takes its toll on you and you've really got to find a way to get away from that and be able to focus on being able to be effective with your time. And be able to focus on being able to be effective with your time. And whether you I don't know if you agree with this or not, but I feel the most valuable asset I have is time, because I can't get it back once it's gone. People think money is, but the thing is you can earn more money, you can lose more money. You can earn it right back. Time is gone. So if you're spending all your time let's say I'm a young father and I'm I'm working on wall street and I'm working nine to nine how is that going to be beneficial for my wife and my kid and myself? It's a horrible experience, to be honest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with you, ryan. I think the thing is so. I have two. I have twin daughters. They're seven years old.
Speaker 2:As much as I would like to, ryan, despite the diapers and the blowouts and stuff like that, I really enjoyed the time that my kids were at when they were one or two years old. But here's the bottom line, though. Here's the hard truth. No matter how much I wish it, no matter how much I'd be willing to pay for it, I can't get that time back Now. Once my girls turn three, they never go back to being two. Yep, once it becomes seven, they never go back to being six.
Speaker 2:So, to your point, even just looking at it from a parenting standpoint, once your kids are out of the house and they graduated parenting standpoint once your kids are out of the house and they graduated, you can't beg them to come back and go back to middle school or high school. Those years are gone. So what that means is that when you are hustling and you are going about this, I just got to make it work. I got to get this promotion, I got to get this job title, I got to get this presentation going. I got to please my boss by whatever means necessary. Okay, there's a trade-off, though, because the time that you're spending with your work, you can't do two things at the same time. As much as we like to think we can multitask, you can't provide quality time with your spouse and your kids at the same time of being present on a conference call at work. Something has to give.
Speaker 1:It does. And I too, back in the day, when I was in corporate America, I chased the next promotion, I chased the next position, whatever the case was. But I learned in a short period of time the more I was grateful for the items I had each day and for the things that and I say things life, my health, my wellbeing, my family, those things having a roof over my head, bills, paid food in my stomach that that seemed to really help and energize myself to be focused more on. Okay, what can I do for others to help them along and get them to be able to be promoted or move up the ranks, however you want to look at that. But until my mindset changed, I struggled. I was always chasing that almighty dollar and it never got any better. Here's the thing, right?
Speaker 2:Dollar, whether it's $1, $20, $50, or $100 or more, it's paper, it's inanimate, it has no heart, no soul, no mind to it, right? But yet, and still so many people essentially gauge who they are based on how much of that dollar they have. Or they're willing to put themselves through stress and anxiety and even harm's way just trying to get more of it. And at the end of the day, if you're not doing well, if you're in the hospital somewhere recovering because you didn't take the time to take care of yourself in the meantime, or you're on your bed, just do. I wish I could have more time with my spouse, or more time with my kids.
Speaker 2:And it's too late now. You can't look at Benjamin Franklin and commiserate with him. As far as your therapist to say, hey, what could I have done better? It's just going to look blankly at you and say and ultimately you have to face the music on that one. So, yeah, it's very telling. I think it'd be helpful for more of our young people to understand what's really important earlier in the age in their careers, because at some point in time I think you and me are witnesses to this, at 40 and 50 respectively At some point in time I think you and me are witnesses to this at 40 and 50, respectively. At some point you learn as you age. Certain things you didn't think was as important back then is more important now.
Speaker 1:Yes, another thing I saw, probably several weeks back, is a young kid that was working on the farm with his family, which his family's been second or third generation, I think. He's maybe eight or nine, maybe 10 at the max, I don't know. But the work ethic that he had was impeccable. It's like working, going to school, making sure he's doing that. But the thing that really caught my eye was he was able to balance it out, they worked, they were Christians. Was able to balance it out, they worked, they were, they're Christians. They went to church on Sunday. So Monday through Saturday they he did whatever work he could do that by law, but also going to school, blah, blah, blah. But Sunday they took the time to connect with the family, go to church, eat dinner, lunch, whatever they do around the dinner table or around the table and really just disconnect and be able to recharge his batteries. Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see a lot of that out there today. Am I wrong?
Speaker 2:Listen, ryan the creator had it right the first time around. He worked on creating this world of ours in six days and then rested on the seventh Yep the creator, yes, and six days, and then rested on the seventh yep the creator, yes, yet, and still the creation us human beings many of us wants to think that's probably not the way I want to follow. That's probably not. I think I have a better way, and oftentimes the better way they think of is I'm just going to work seven days straight, yeah, and I'm just going to go eight hours a day, 12 hours a day, 10 hours a day, 16 hours a day, oh, and sleep. I'll sleep when I die. Once again, this gets back to how do you sustain that? And so the thought is that even in that example you bring up to Ryan, you still work six days and you rest on the seven. Six out of seven, that's a pretty good proportion dedicated to work, correct? But rest was important enough that the seven day was dedicated just for rest.
Speaker 1:And I know I struggled with this in my career when I was in corporate America and as an entrepreneur, and until I realized that all I was doing a disservice to myself and to my family is when I said, okay, I need a one, pull back. I can't do this on my own. Whether people listening guys, I bring it up. Whether you're faith-based or not. As you said, philip, the creator, god, made it and made this earth that we're on, or the universe, however. You want to look at it in six days and we're trying to push against all of that history when, if you just step back and say, okay, what do I need to do to one reconnect, but two to rest?
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but when I first started doing it, I saw a huge difference in my outlook on life, positivity in my mind, because I was pretty I don't want to say depressed, but I was pretty melancholy. When I would go to work on Monday, I was like, oh my gosh, it's Sunday's already over and I'm back to work already, and I would sit at home with my laptop open, working seven days a week and just never stopped. And it just makes no sense. Why do you want to put yourself in the ground, kill yourself for something that you can't control most of the time, when you can actually be better with time management and be more effective with it over a shorter period of time, to give yourself some time back to relax and some sanity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a real thing, ryan. Like I remember even being in school right Sunday afternoon for some reason, like right around five or six o'clock, something in my body would just start to change. It starts to get more stress as I'm eating dinner, more anxious. It's not because my favorite football team is losing on the big screen right. It's more so the thought of oh shoot, I got class tomorrow, I got school tomorrow, or, for other people, I got to go back to work tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Yes, so oftentimes, not only if it's not Sunday afternoon, sunday evening, it's Monday morning, where you tend to have more issues of accidents on the road, heart attacks, anxiety, panic attacks and that sort of thing happening at the start of a week, much more so than at the end of the week. There's a reason why they say thank God, it's Friday, for a reason we have this sense of wanting to escape the stress that we have, which seems like something we just have to deal with, which is work, which often begs the question is this something we need to be doing, though? Because if it's adding so much stress here, and the only reason why you're doing it is necessarily for a paycheck while we live in a different time now than 40, 50 years ago, that you may have more options on how you go about providing for your means. That might be different from how you're currently doing it, because, yeah, you may get a paycheck at the end of the week or two weeks or month, but at what cost?
Speaker 1:yeah, I know we've gone off topic, but can we go back to your home health system or your home spa system?
Speaker 2:sure, talk a little bit about that and what that looks like yeah, so basically the e-commerce brand we're building is called Home Spa Essentials and what essentially is thinking this, just this concept of listen, if so many people have this loving memory of like when they go to a spa and they relax and they can just disconnect from life altogether, just like you talked about with the boy on Sunday you just disconnect and you just rest and you recover, that you just disconnect and you just rest and you recover. It's really building on this concept that wouldn't it be better for you to have that ability to rest and recover one much more often than once a month or on your birthday or anniversary, to be able to do it not in front of people you don't know that are putting their hands on you and sanitizing this and that, and you've never been here before. But now you're in a towel, you're supposed to relax and you're all of a sudden all like body conscious. How am I going to look in that sort of front of a stranger, of a stranger, but be able to do that as far as something that helps you out, helps you recover and rest, primarily from the comfort, convenience and privacy of your home? And so really taking that idea, that big picture idea, and thinking as to how do you make that happen is really looking at it from the standpoint of what are common things that people like to do in a spa-like environment to help them relax and be able to share that with people in a way of saying, hey, your health is worth investing in Ryan, where, if you want to feel relaxed after a long day at work, instead of thinking about, oh I wish I could afford a masseuse or I wish I could afford to go to the spa on a weekly basis, making the investment, for example, of getting like a high-end, premium massage chair that you can have in your living room or you could have in your favorite place at home, that you don't have to call to make an appointment, you don't have to wonder if you have enough on the charge card to afford the massage treatment, you don't have to worry if Dorothy is available and whether or not her hands are sanitized and not to do the massage right.
Speaker 2:Or are you comfortable massaging my feet today, versus my back, versus my neck, but just thinking about it in a sense like being able to, in this example, watch your favorite football game. I used to think of it as when I was growing up. I would get my grandfather, my family. We thought we were doing a great thing by giving my grandfather a reclining chair. That was like the big thing right. It was a chair that reclined, so you felt like you were like more relaxed, your feet is up, you feel more comfortable watching the game.
Speaker 2:Now, 40, 50 years later, technology has it in the point where, in this example, would it be nice to get in your favorite massage chair and watch that same football game and program a 30 minute, 45 minute hour massage program on that chair, for example? And as you're watching your game or you're talking to your spouse or you're on the phone with friends, you actually feel like you're in the spa but you're at home. So it's the thought of just certain elements, or essentials, we call them, that people love to have in spas and say, hey, how do we include that in your home? Because, if anything else, if you have it in your home, you're much more likely to use it. And it would be great to use after a long day's work or after a grueling workout or even aggressive playtime with your kids or grandkids, like that's the sort of thing where it's just like little by little, just something as simple as that and not just having it in your house, but make it a commitment to use it on a regular basis because you recognize that it can help you, not just now when you have the aches and pains, when you wake up and you got the lower back pain and by the time you stretch, 40 bones cracked, all you know, but it's more so the sense to say, hey, when we talked about this earlier, right, okay, 40, seen as the midpoint, you want to reach the 80.
Speaker 2:Now is a good time to start planning if I want to reach that goal of 80, of my 50th wedding anniversary with my wife, of walking my kids down the aisle at the wedding and being able to actually stand up right for the first dance with my daughter. You got to start putting these things in place now. As far as how you plan for it, and oftentimes when you look at the spa as like the relaxation oasis that I only wish I could aspire to afford, but I only could do on my birthday. Now it's just trying to take that concept and say, hey, what if there's a way we can actually put it in your home? What if there's a way we can actually have it in a place where it's convenient for you to use on a daily, weekly basis, because the thought is, if you use it on a daily, weekly basis, you're probably going to feel better than you currently do right now. You're probably going to recover from work when it's really stressful a lot better than you do right now.
Speaker 1:So what type of investment would it be if they bought one of those chairs?
Speaker 2:So it depends. So for us, we offer a variety of massage chairs, for example, but outside of massage chairs, we're looking into things as far as like cold plunge tubs. We're looking at saunas different types of saunas. Red light therapy is like the new trend that's coming up nowadays too. So different types when it comes to like hydrotherapy or muscle recovery and that sort.
Speaker 2:But when it comes to investment, it typically ranges, depending on what you're looking at, anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to five figures. It just really depends on what's right for you. What are you looking for? But also you're thinking about in the sense is not only as an investment in your own health and wellness, but also could be shared among your family, so, like your spouse could partake in this, maybe your older kids, maybe you got relatives visiting and they can partake in this too.
Speaker 2:But also the emphasis of home. Oftentimes, what is the one place that we feel most comfortable at Home? Home, what is the place that's oftentimes the biggest investment we make when it comes to financial freedom that we aspire to make, the home. So, when all said and done, what is probably the best place to invest in, not just in our home but also in ourselves for the long term? Yeah, our home. So that's the sort of thing you look at from that frame of mind. You love being at home, you love spending the time with the people you love. You want to be around. For the long term, these are some investments for yourself that not only can make you better at work because you're more relaxed and you're more at ease, but you can better do the job as you hustle for the next promotion and next pay grade and the next presentation. But more importantly, like we said before Ryan, it helps you better sustain yourself in the long term.
Speaker 2:How long has the business been around? So we just premiered this year. How long has the business been around? So we just premiered this year. So, basically, once we figure out this new concept that many people aren't really talking about at all, we said, hey, how can we actually put this together? And, yeah, we launched it earlier this year.
Speaker 1:Cool. What's the name of the company? You didn't tell us that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So the store is called Home Spa Essentials and its website is homespaessentialscom. Cool.
Speaker 1:So, right now, what are you guys selling on the site? Is it just the chairs, or is there other items that you guys are selling?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if you go on there now, we're adding new products each week. So we have massage chairs, we have saunas like traditional saunas. It's like the steam you put the water on the rocks steam like an infrared saunas, their barrel sauna. So you got like actual, like beer barrel looking saunas. We put outside more of an aesthetic look but still gets the job done. Let's see that we have cold punch tubs there too. So if you're thinking about it from like a what they call, like a contrast therapy, like if you're using water, both hot water and cold water, to help ease like the muscles and help you feel better. We got steam showers, we got jetted tubs and, as I mentioned before, we're adding new products each week that's cool, and then so if people want to, I guess I'm going to have to ask a question.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty large chair to ship, so you guys can actually ship nationwide.
Speaker 2:Yep, awesome, we focus on continental US. We can do Hawaii, alaska. It just adds a little bit for us and we'll ask the customer to help us out on that. But yes, continental USA, we definitely can help there.
Speaker 1:Okay, and repeat your website again, because I want to make sure we get it in the show notes too.
Speaker 2:Sure, so it's wwwhomespaessentialscom.
Speaker 1:Awesome, sir. It's been great speaking with you, and what you're doing is one it's a necessity. What you're doing is one is it's a necessity, but to bring it in the house, I have to ask, before we wrap up, how many competitors you have. There's not too many people out there that are doing this. Are there? Is there?
Speaker 2:I don't think so and the reason why I write it. I don't say that to be like oh, look at me. I say that more so since here's the concept of massage chairs existed. Beyond me being here. There were saunas, not not only in america, but like in finland, but in other countries in the sort right showers, right, she's like that that's been around for a while.
Speaker 2:The difference, though, is essentially looking at in the sense of basically cultivating your own home spa, right? It's almost when you look at McDonald's, and they had hamburgers, they had French fries, they had drinks. It was only until somebody came around and said, hey, would it make sense to combine two or three of these items and make a meal out of it? And they just say, hey, give me the hamburger fries and shake for this price. And what we're saying just say, hey, give me the hamburger fries and shake for this price.
Speaker 2:And what we're saying here is, hey, can we take some of these elements, these essentials that people often buy separately just for a specific purpose, and say, hey, don't do it just for that sake of that one item? Yeah, add two or three of these things together, put in your own special room, your man cave, your basement, your living room, wherever the case may be, and essentially have that as your particular home spa. That's different, that's something I haven't seen and that's gets me excited to really spread the word about that, to help more people live longer and enjoy life more by having their own home spas.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, sir. Thank you for coming on and happy early 40th birthday. I hope you have a great birthday, but better yet, everything works out for you and you guys are kicking butt and taking names on this business because you guys are doing things that other people are not looking at and trying to help others. But the biggest thing is health. We talked about it and health is something we can't get of. We can get more of. It's just like time. It's a valuable asset. So thank you for coming on.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thanks so much for the opportunity, Ryan.
