Latest / The Perfect RIA / I Have No Time
Transcript
- 0:29Jamie Shilanski: You will never in your life have more time to
- 0:32do something than you do right now. Welcome back TPR nation.
- 0:36This is Jamie Shilanski, an episode of Worlds to Conquer,
- 0:39and we are going to be talking about really important question
- 0:43that our podcast curator brought to my attention from one of our
- 0:47members here at The Perfect Ria. And they have been talking to
- 0:51Amber and said, You know what, I have a really hard time
- 0:54attending professional development and going to
- 0:57conferences. I'm worried about engaging, renewing memberships
- 1:01and doing all of these different things in the professional
- 1:04development networking side, because where we are at in the
- 1:08stage of our lives right now is we are raising our kids, and
- 1:12when I leave town, when I dedicate myself to professional
- 1:15development and continuing education, it really hard on my
- 1:19wife. Lord Almighty, do I not understand better than most, how
- 1:23difficult it is to be raising a family, doing things pause,
- 1:26trying to get ahead in your career and get certain
- 1:29licensing, continuing education development, go to networking,
- 1:33go to conference, events that you're always looking for. What
- 1:37can I give up? What can I not commit to in order to make it
- 1:40easier for whoever is at home. And so I have one child, but we
- 1:44were instrumental in raising my nephew and niece. And my nephew
- 1:48is the same age as my child, and my niece is four years older. So
- 1:52oftentimes we would have them. We would definitely have them
- 1:56Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the school year. But then
- 1:59intermittently, we would have my niece also, unexpectedly, you
- 2:03know, probably three to four nights a week we would have her
- 2:07plus, at that particular time, my mom and dad were building a
- 2:10property out in big lake Alaska, and needed a lot of help. On the
- 2:14weekends, there was a commitment to those type of projects. And
- 2:18then, in addition to that, during all of this, my spouse's
- 2:22brother ended up moving in with us for a little while not to be
- 2:26of help in this capacity, but instead, because he needed a
- 2:29little bit of help getting back on his feet in life. So there's
- 2:33always these familial obligations. There's always
- 2:36these things tugging, eroding, eating away at our time. And
- 2:40often, if you are a lot like me, if you are very empathetic to
- 2:43the person that you are in a relationship with, you are
- 2:47trying to look at ways to mitigate their stress. You're
- 2:50trying to reduce how much burden you put on them. And I see this
- 2:54a lot when it comes to attending conferences. And people say,
- 2:58Well, you know, what? Do you have a virtual event? Can I
- 3:01stream that online? Can I just tune in and watch it as a
- 3:05webinar? Are you guys going to record this session and I can go
- 3:08back and watch it at my leisure. Now, I'm not a big fan of doing
- 3:12that, of having recorded sessions, or attending webinars,
- 3:16or doing things like that, streaming online, because I
- 3:19don't think that you get the same level of engagement. I
- 3:22don't think that you show up you as the as the person
- 3:26participating, as an audience member, with the same level of
- 3:29commitment that you would have if you were physically there in
- 3:33person. But what do you do when you're being pulled two
- 3:37different directions? What happens when you know that it
- 3:40would be so good for your network and your growth as a
- 3:43financial advisor to be attending some type of
- 3:46conference or professional development event, but at the
- 3:50same time, you have all of this guilt because you're going to be
- 3:53leaving somebody else saddled up with all the responsibilities at
- 3:57home, and that could be animals, that could be kids, that could
- 4:01be parents, that could be volunteer work, that could be
- 4:05church commitments, whatever it is that is pulling at your Time
- 4:08and taking you away from being able to dedicate yourself to
- 4:12growing in your career. Well, guess what? Most people you meet
- 4:16have some other responsibilities outside of their career. You're
- 4:20probably not unique in that capacity. The difference is,
- 4:23those people are showing up to advance their career, because
- 4:27they know that where they want to get to, who they want to
- 4:30become, has to start somewhere, and it has to start some time.
- 4:34You can keep putting off events, and you can keep saying, You
- 4:38know what, when the kids get in school, I'll go when the kids
- 4:42graduate from school, I'll go when my mom and dad, you know,
- 4:45move into assisted living, or maybe need a little less help.
- 4:49God forbid, the Lord take them away too early, and then I'll be
- 4:53able to dedicate myself to my career. Life doesn't happen that
- 4:57way. I've I've never been around where, you know, one year seems
- 5:00a lot slower than any other year before. Now what I have
- 5:04experienced is looking back and saying, my goodness, I had no
- 5:08idea how much time I had then compared to where I am today.
- 5:11And if you share that experience, if you share looking
- 5:14back through that glass with me and say, You know what, I
- 5:18thought I had no time, but I had all the time in the world a few
- 5:22years ago, I could have been doing this. I should have been
- 5:25doing this because now my plate and my cup, they run it over,
- 5:29and I have no idea how I'm going to get it all done. Then let's
- 5:33talk about how some of the top advisors out there are still
- 5:37elevating their careers without sacrificing their family time
- 5:40and commitments. Because one thing that we are really, really
- 5:44big on here at The Perfect RIA, in our pursuit of developing a
- 5:48perfect investment advisory firm, is making sure that we
- 5:51don't keep saying we are doing this for the people that we love
- 5:55the most in the world, and then all of our actions contradicting
- 5:59that sentiment, and for us, that means being hyper intentional
- 6:03with our time. Hyper intentional with our time. So we normally
- 6:07plan out by October, we have all of the following year mapped out
- 6:11for us. So what does this look like? Well, by September, I've
- 6:14already asked my executive assistants I want the next year
- 6:18as a wall calendar printed down. Our surge schedule is decided by
- 6:22October, 1 of this year for the following year. Now, most of the
- 6:26time our surge schedule says pretty good cadence. So let's
- 6:29talk a little bit about that. So surge, you already know, is a
- 6:33specific time block, period of time and which you are doing
- 6:37nothing but back to back, meeting with clients and
- 6:40delivering massive value. Now actually, landscape associates
- 6:43are a up and Anchorage Alaska, our surge schedule runs, we have
- 6:47two big surges, and then we have many surges. So I'm going to
- 6:51talk first about the big two surges, and then we're going to
- 6:55go into those minis. So our first big surge of the year is
- 6:58March 1, and that's going to last until tax day into April
- 7:0215. So it's about six weeks of surgery now in that big surge,
- 7:05and we call it the biggest surge of our year, because this is
- 7:09when we are the most strategic about going and getting
- 7:12information from our clients. We asked for every single document
- 7:16that we have longed for all year long. And guess what? Got a
- 7:20really high success ratio of getting those documents from
- 7:23clients. And why? Why are we so successful in getting
- 7:27documentation on financial plans during the month of March and
- 7:30April, because it's tax time. And guess what? Mode most
- 7:34clients are in. They are in the hunting and gathering stages of
- 7:38getting their documentation, getting their financial affairs
- 7:41in order. And so they will be going out and they will be
- 7:45downloading 1099 they will getting paid pay stubs. They'll
- 7:48be looking at employee benefits. They will be seeing how much
- 7:52they contributed to FSA HSAs. They'll be pulling how much
- 7:56mortgage they have left on their house for their 1098. They are
- 7:59in massive hunter gatherer mode for financial documents, and
- 8:03this is a great time to ask them to send our office a copy of
- 8:07them now, inch landscape associates, we do not currently
- 8:10prepare client income tax returns. We did it for a few
- 8:13years. It became incredibly laborious for us, so we ended up
- 8:17outsourcing a lot of our clients tax returns to our partners over
- 8:21at retirement tax services. They work exclusively with financial
- 8:25planners, and you want to hire their tax professional team to
- 8:29do your clients taxes. You have to be a member of the retirement
- 8:33tax services because that's their exclusive relationship.
- 8:36One thing that they do a lot different than most senior firms
- 8:40is they want to work with the financial advisor. And so what
- 8:43this means for me specifically is if we've got a big red flag
- 8:47on a tax return, and let's just say that the client owes more
- 8:51than $25,000 so all of a sudden we know we have a $50,000
- 8:54liability. Instead of calling the client the CPA saying, My
- 8:58god, did you know that your idiot financial advisor caused
- 9:02you to have a $50,000 tax liability because they did a
- 9:05massive Roth conversion, instead that CPA calls me and says, Hey,
- 9:09Jamie, I was just working on Bob and Sue's income tax. I'm sure
- 9:13you're already aware, but they're going to around $1,000
- 9:16this year from the Roth conversion before we reach out
- 9:19to them with the tax return. This excellent opportunity for
- 9:23you to remind them how we're going to satisfy that tax bill
- 9:27totally take the home run, and to call them and say,
- 9:30Congratulations Mr. Mrs. Client, because you were so forward
- 9:33thinking and doing this amazing Roth conversion, we're finishing
- 9:37up the tax return with your CPA. They're going to get everything
- 9:41finalized to you. Hey, just as reminder, don't forget that we
- 9:45had talked several times about this tax bill that we're going
- 9:49to have, and here's how we're going to pay for that. So when
- 9:52you get that giant return, make sure that you notify our office
- 9:56and we'll get that estimated payment right. out, or that
- 10:00payment burned out to the IRS. And the guy who's like, Oh my
- 10:03God, thank you so much, I would have freaked out. If I had seen
- 10:07that big bill, and I didn't know. So, when I tell you, March
- 10:11and April, was an excellent time to search. March and April is an
- 10:15excellent time to search. surge is amazing for us. So then we
- 10:18come out, and then we do our next surge is going to be during
- 10:22the October, November time frame.
- 10:23So we're going to start it somewhere around the first week
- 10:25of October, and we're going to end right before Thanksgiving.
- 10:29And the main concentration for October November is going to be
- 10:32estate planning. And I love talking to clients about estate
- 10:36planning beneficiary designations, kind of reviewing
- 10:38the net worth reports, if we need to, and making sure that
- 10:42we're making all the changes in their employee benefit plans if
- 10:45necessary during that time frame. Why? Because a couple of
- 10:48things on the calendar are working in my favor. One, open
- 10:51enrollment for a lot of employer agencies is in the month of
- 10:54November. And so we make all of those reviews. We make all the
- 10:57changes we look at all the income and cash flow employee
- 11:00benefit plan on that side, I also love talking to clients
- 11:04they planning during October, November. Why? Because the
- 11:08holidays are right around the corner, and there is no greater
- 11:11reminder that you want to make changes to your estate planning
- 11:16when you bring your entire family together under one roof
- 11:19and go, I am not leaving you all my money making some changes
- 11:26right away. This is what estate planning attorneys tell you they
- 11:29are. The busiest is October, November, December of every
- 11:32single year. So we like to coincide the schedule with that.
- 11:35Now, outside of that, we do mini surges. And mini surges are for
- 11:38about one week every single month. When we first started
- 11:41doing this, we thought about just doing like a June, July,
- 11:44August, big surge, kind of like how we do so we're meeting with
- 11:46the clients three times a year. We discovered that that was too
- 11:50infrequent. And what that meant was not because of our clients
- 11:53found that it was too infrequent, but instead, what we
- 11:56discovered was our team was super, super uncomfortable
- 12:00saying, Mr. Mrs. Client, you scheduled for an appointment
- 12:03April. Jamie doesn't have another availability until
- 12:06September. Would you like to schedule your appointment? So
- 12:09like everything we do, we listen to our team at Shaleen, see us
- 12:12for feedback. What's working, what's not working, what's
- 12:16working for clients, but maybe isn't working for you. So
- 12:19clients didn't have we had a couple of clients that that
- 12:21really didn't like how long it took to get in for an
- 12:24appointment when we were running that schedule, and it made our
- 12:27team members just feel uncomfortable. They didn't like
- 12:30the response of saying there was no availability. So we sat down
- 12:33and we looked at the calendar and said, Okay, you know what?
- 12:35There's 30 days in the month. Do you need all 30? Nope, I don't
- 12:38need all 30 to make appointments. Great. Do you need
- 12:41three weeks? Nope, I think three weeks is too long. Do you need
- 12:44two weeks? You know what? And we start off with two weeks, and
- 12:47then as we progressed went down, they said, You know what, I
- 12:49think I only need one week. I need one week to know that
- 12:53clients can make an appointment, you can return phone calls, and
- 12:56we can concentrate on that is a wonderful and so we open up
- 12:59those mini search times. Now, are they always full? Maybe,
- 13:03maybe not? Depends. We also put prospects in those mini search
- 13:06times. So if we get hired by somebody in March, you know, we
- 13:09don't want to wait until October to do the planning, so we might
- 13:12bring them right back in during the month of May, and do a lot
- 13:15of mini surges inside of there, getting those second, third and
- 13:18fourth appointments. So we're really hyper intentional about
- 13:21our time. So as I've got my wall calendar out in front of me, and
- 13:24I block out all of my surge schedule, then I want to start
- 13:28my conference planning. That becomes the next layer of this.
- 13:32And so then I'm looking a year and ahead and saying, all right,
- 13:34what events do I want to attend. What professional development do
- 13:38I want to be a part of? Now here's the important part of it.
- 13:42I am not somebody that's a conference junkie. I think
- 13:45somebody who was telling me, I think it was Matt Jarvis, maybe
- 13:47it was Steven. He was telling me that kids is attended something
- 13:51like 34 conferences a year, physically, in person, not
- 13:54stream. Went there and attended them. No way, no how. I
- 13:59appreciate that vigor. I can't I could not imagine committing to
- 14:02that, but I know that I want to do one a quarter. And so two of
- 14:06these, I tried to make it live. So the first two out of two of
- 14:09those quarters, I'll try to go somewhere and be in person for a
- 14:12couple of days and attend those events. The other two, I might
- 14:15take a course online. I might do some other professional
- 14:18development in that capacity, but I want to mix it up with at
- 14:21least four ways that I'm educated and elevating myself.
- 14:26And so when I go to somebody, when I'm going in person, I'm
- 14:30blocking out that time, and I'm looking at the calendar, and I'm
- 14:32planning on where these trips are going to be. Now if you have
- 14:35ever noticed conferences always take some type of like, I don't
- 14:41know who does all the conference planning out there, but they
- 14:43always seem to be in similar locations. So for a while,
- 14:46everything was in Vegas, then then it was Arizona, and then it
- 14:50was in Nashville for a while, and and so all of these
- 14:54conferences tend to, oh, yes, of course, Austin. So go into these
- 14:58habits of every single year we're going to go to this
- 15:00location, this area, and so what I'll do is, after get my
- 15:03conference is mapped out, and block out my time of what I'm
- 15:05going to do my professional development, I will loot my
- 15:08spouse in and I will say, okay, great, let's talk about family
- 15:10trips. These are the times I cannot go because my work comes
- 15:14as the priority. I don't put the family trips ahead of my work
- 15:18schedule. Because guess what? My work schedule pays for the
- 15:21family trips, guys, it pays for the family trips. And so I must
- 15:25prioritize being able my number one responsibility is to provide
- 15:28for my family. And I provide for my family by taking care of my
- 15:32clients and running the businesses as I'm supposed to be
- 15:35running them. And so I'll say, here's all of the weeks I cannot
- 15:39do anything, I cannot commit to anything, because I'm dedicated
- 15:41towards client time, and I'm get educated towards many surges.
- 15:45And so then here's my time. I got to have professional
- 15:48development. Would you like to go on any one of these trips? My
- 15:52spouse loves to dirt bike. Big dirt biker hates to travel, but
- 15:55loves to dirt bike. Well, we live in Alaska, so guess what?
- 15:58You cannot dirt bike all year long. So sometimes, if I'm
- 16:02attending a conference in a winter state, they might tag
- 16:05along with me and do one or two days of some type of dirt biking
- 16:08or skill training. Hi, we'll hire a coach in that particular
- 16:11area, and they'll get a scratch that itch in that way. Why I go
- 16:15do something now, here's my plan. In doing that, when that
- 16:18occurs, I make sure that during the days of the conference,
- 16:21they're busy with an activity, that way I'm not getting blown
- 16:25up about what time are you done? Can we have lunch together? Can
- 16:29we go get, you know, dinner, or When are we meeting back up?
- 16:32Their day is filled with occupation, and I want my day
- 16:35filled of occupation, so then that way, because a lot of times
- 16:38what I'll see at conferences is people be like, Oh, I'm gonna go
- 16:41meet my wife. I'm gonna go meet my spouse. Now I would much
- 16:44rather have lunch with my spouse than anyone else at a
- 16:47conference, but I am supposed to be there to network and to
- 16:52mingle and to listen to ideas. And sometimes the ideas don't
- 16:56come from the keynote address. They don't come from the
- 16:59breakout rooms. They come from just chit chatting with people
- 17:02and hearing one or two ideas, or learning about what people are
- 17:05doing different, or what they're going to change in their
- 17:08practices, or where they're at, what's working, what didn't
- 17:10work. So that I can take that back home and implement it, and
- 17:14then what I'll do on days that my conference does attend is
- 17:17will plan to stay two days after that event. I am a big believer,
- 17:21if your conference wraps up Friday at noon, don't you dare
- 17:24catch a two o'clock flight out of town. You need to stay one
- 17:28more day at that conference, and you need to pound out all of the
- 17:31ideas that you are buzzing about before rushing back to town. So
- 17:34many times, people feel guilty about being gone, and so they're
- 17:38in a hurry to get back home. But the problem is, you get back
- 17:41home and you're not really there, because mentally, you're
- 17:43thinking about all of the things that you just learned and you
- 17:46want to get done. So instead, give yourself the extra two or
- 17:50four hours to stay at that venue. Pound out all of your
- 17:54information, outline things. I mean, I will write email
- 17:57campaigns. I will do marketing events. I will change policies
- 18:00and processes. I will record loom videos for our team. I will
- 18:04do all of the research and get all of this brain dump out of my
- 18:07head. Now, Jamie, I can do that on the airplane. Oh, okay. Well,
- 18:12I live probably the furthest away from most conferences,
- 18:15being in Alaska, and I will do a significant amount of work on
- 18:19the airplane, but I won't have done all of it. I will not have
- 18:23done all of it because travel gives us different you know,
- 18:26opportunities for testing our patients, like, is the flight
- 18:30delayed?
- 18:30Is it on time? Do you have internet? Do you have not
- 18:33internet? Are you sitting next to a super chatty person? Is
- 18:36there a screaming baby? Do you not feel good? Are you tired all
- 18:40of the things? So I would rather prioritize. I already went
- 18:43through the effort. I already paid all this money to attend a
- 18:47venue. Why am I not then implementing all the ideas that
- 18:50I just learned about? So that's a big hack of mine. Now, if my
- 18:53spouse is with me, we'll stay one or two extra days after that
- 18:57happens after that decompression, and go do
- 18:59something fun together. And so it becomes a trip as well as an
- 19:02education event. If my spouse is not with me, then after I've
- 19:06decompressed and I got all my ideas and information out, then
- 19:09I'll go ahead and take off and go back home, because I want to
- 19:13be with my spouse. I want to be back home. I love being back
- 19:16home, but I also want to be really intentional about my
- 19:19time, because if you've attended a conference and you come back
- 19:23home and and you're just kind of annoyed, because now you're
- 19:26you're dealing with all of the household obligations. Now
- 19:29you're dealing with all the household things that need your
- 19:33attention, and you're mentally somewhere else, well, that's not
- 19:36balance. That's not a good way to show up. And it took me a
- 19:39long time to realize that, because my spouse ended up
- 19:42coming to me one time and saying, Hey, if you're not going
- 19:46to be here, then don't care yet. If you're not going to
- 19:49physically and mentally be present with us, then don't come
- 19:52home yet. Because when you come home, we're really excited to
- 19:55see you, and we're really excited to share with you
- 19:58everything that's happened and to hear about your trip, but if
- 20:02you're thinking of a million other things and you're there
- 20:05instead of here, then don't come home yet. Take that extra time
- 20:08so that when you are here, you're present. And that was a
- 20:12really good slap in the face. That was because I felt obliged
- 20:15to hurry up and get back home, but didn't realize getting home
- 20:18was costing my family when I wasn't decompressing, when I
- 20:22wasn't getting all these ideas out, when I wasn't showing up
- 20:25and returning back home fully present. So make sure you have a
- 20:28good balance about that. All right, let's talk about some of
- 20:32the tricks and hacks that I have learned over the years because
- 20:35because it's hard when you want to attend these professional
- 20:39development stuff and you want to grow, but you feel so bad
- 20:42because you know it's causing so much stress on your spouse, on
- 20:46your parents, on all these other people because you're not there
- 20:49to help balance. All right. So let's talk about those puppies,
- 20:53those puppies that we treat like children. So if you've got
- 20:56puppies and you feel that you know that you are one of the
- 20:59caregivers, and it puts too much responsibility on the other one
- 21:03at home, super easy. Hire someone to walk them, find a
- 21:06doggy daycare, take them their vet, get them their regular
- 21:09shots before they go to those places, and have them go to a
- 21:12doggy daycare during the day. It exhausts the puppy, it's good
- 21:16socialization for them, and it takes a world of trouble off of
- 21:19your spouse. Now let's talk about the real children, the one
- 21:22with hopefully two legs. All right, so when it comes to the
- 21:26kids, you know, one of the things that I see a lot of
- 21:29financial advisors start to happen is once they once they
- 21:32get their career going, they become a single income
- 21:35household, and single income household with multiple
- 21:38children. And so then we've got multiple sporting programs,
- 21:41school programs, bedtime routines, and it's a lot to have
- 21:44to juggle as a single parent. And so what I like to do here is
- 21:48I want to make sure that we've provided enough support in
- 21:51different capacities. And here's what that means. Sometimes, even
- 21:54if your parent is a stay at home parent, if the spouse is a stay
- 21:58at home parent, then looking at outside resources to help you
- 22:01know neighborhood kids that can come over for two to four hours
- 22:05out of the afternoon, just so that one spouse can get a break,
- 22:08go to the grocery store, get laundry done, entertain the
- 22:12kids, whatever that looks like, maybe a part time nanny. I've
- 22:15seen that in a lot of capacities. So then that way, if
- 22:18you've got four kids, two of them are little, the nanny is
- 22:21staying home with to the two little ones, and you're going to
- 22:25the sporting gimbins with the two older ones, looking at some
- 22:28type of assistance. Now, if that's not fitting of your
- 22:31lifestyle, that's not something that you want to accommodate.
- 22:34There are other things that you can do that are of significant
- 22:38value, like bringing in somebody to help clean the house, even if
- 22:42you have a stay at home parent, bringing somebody in to help
- 22:45clean and take care of the property and do all of that, if
- 22:48that is yard work, if that is housework, if that is laundry,
- 22:52services, grocery delivery, I am the sole cooker and our family,
- 22:55so I make all of the food. My spouse often tells me that they
- 22:58were long capable of making food before they met me, evidence I
- 23:02have yet to see, but they are still alive, so clearly doing
- 23:05something. But what I like to do before I go on a trip like that,
- 23:09because I don't want to hear about it is I will make one or
- 23:12two meals ahead of time. I will make sure that there's food that
- 23:16they know how to cook inside of the house, and I'll stock the
- 23:19house with groceries. And then the second thing that I like to
- 23:23do, especially if I'm at a longer venue, so if I'm going to
- 23:26be gone for a week, is right in the middle of the week, I'll
- 23:29just have a meal delivered. I will just be like, Hey, I know
- 23:33you're holding down the fort. Thank you so much for supporting
- 23:36me, and I'm going to have food delivered, and I make sure that
- 23:40my EA, Instacart, DoorDash, all those things make it incredibly
- 23:43easy to do that, but if not, my EA has got my back, and she's
- 23:47watching out for that as well. And we make sure it's taken care
- 23:50of. So doing those little things of what, what do you do in the
- 23:54house that now becomes really the responsibility of one
- 23:57individual ahead of time, and then how can you mitigate that?
- 24:00How can you find all of these little services that we have
- 24:03available to help that person feel a little supported during
- 24:07your absence? Now, another big thing that I like to do with my
- 24:10spouse already mentioned that I roll out that wall calendar, and
- 24:14we look at all of the client appointment dates, then we look
- 24:17at the Education dates, and then we put our family trips on. This
- 24:21is we have great conversations when we do our year in planning
- 24:24together, and we talk a lot about like, hey, what do you
- 24:27want to learn next year? What goals do you have for the next
- 24:31five years? What are we accomplishing? We're both really
- 24:34big into learning. And so what do we want to learn about? What
- 24:37do we want to have more information on what do we see
- 24:40this going and I will sit down, and I will talk to my spouse,
- 24:44and they'll tell me about what they want to learn. And then
- 24:47they also have begun to ask, what businesses are you thinking
- 24:50of doing? What? How many businesses will you be owning
- 24:53next year? Because I have interest in several different
- 24:56companies, and they also know that that's going to take up a
- 25:00lot of my time. And so if I do a new business, if I do a new
- 25:03obligation that takes away some of my family time, and we have
- 25:07balanced conversations about that. I had this killer business
- 25:10that I sat down, I was just giving the person advice, and
- 25:13then because they had a couple of questions about how to get
- 25:16started, and then by the end of the conversation, they said,
- 25:20Hey, would you be my business partner? Like, if I gave you
- 25:23half a stake of equity in the company, would you come in and
- 25:26do this and let me do the service that I know how to do
- 25:29best, and you run the business? And I said, you know, I'm not
- 25:33sure. Let me sit down and talk to my spouse about it. And we
- 25:36looked over it, and we, we've kind of got this. I have an
- 25:39ethos for how I engage in other organizations, and I have a
- 25:43checklist, like, hey, this one has to be doing this. This one
- 25:46has to be doing that before I take on any anything else. And
- 25:49we looked at it and we said, You know what, I'm kind of in an
- 25:53okay spot. And they said, but you know what, we really want to
- 25:56travel and do a couple of other things. I'd love to go fishing.
- 26:00I'd love to go camping a little bit more this summer. And if you
- 26:03take that on, we're not going to be able to do that. And I said,
- 26:07You're right. And so I passed where, conversely, sometimes I
- 26:10sit down and say, Hey, this is what it takes, and this is a
- 26:14month that is going to obligate me. And they said, You know
- 26:17what, I'm super busy in my career at that time. So if
- 26:20you're occupied doing that, I have no objections whatsoever.
- 26:23And so we have those conversations. And if I say,
- 26:26Hey, I'm going to go and do this. This is what it means for
- 26:29us to achieve that goal. Then we're coming at it together as a
- 26:33team, and then they're also having a voice and a say. But
- 26:36guess what that means? I have to listen. I don't always like to
- 26:39listen to the voice and the say, but that's part of making sure
- 26:43that nobody's resentful when we are leveling up, when we are
- 26:46committing ourselves to go to different educational things,
- 26:50and when we're goal setting, you know, sometimes we'll have
- 26:53really big goals, and I'll say, Hey, if you know, for example,
- 26:56if we want to buy that motorhome, that means that I
- 26:59have to do X, Y and Z, are we both committed to that? Because
- 27:03that's going to take me out of the house. And if I'm out of the
- 27:06house, that means that this, this, and this is going to fall
- 27:10on you. Yep, I'm on board 100% and then we have an agreement,
- 27:13or I get to hear, no, I'm sorry. I've got my own things going on.
- 27:17That's too much time away. I really need you to be here
- 27:20during that period TPR nation. I would love to sit here and tell
- 27:23you that there's going to be a perfect time in your career that
- 27:27you could attend all the professional development you can
- 27:30make, all the advancements in the world, and that it's going
- 27:33to get easier. But guess what? It just doesn't. Because after
- 27:37your kids are grown, your parents are probably going to
- 27:40start needing some help. You're going to have other things going
- 27:43on in your life. God forbid, you have an empty nest syndrome
- 27:47happening in the household, and that's really difficult, because
- 27:50when you're raising your babies, those littles, your focus as two
- 27:54parents and a household, one thing survival of raising those
- 27:57children, but when they go out on their own and they become
- 28:01adults, the two of you have to refine each other. You have to
- 28:04refined each other and figure out what that means to be
- 28:07together and independent when nothing else is taking up the
- 28:10focus of all of your time, you never have more time than what
- 28:14you do right now. So order the wall calendar. Map out search.
- 28:17Map out your conferences. Have those conversations with your
- 28:20spouse. Figure out what needs to happen when you are gone. Make
- 28:24it okay for you to continue to learn. to get where you need to
- 28:27be in your career. TPR nation. This is Jamie Shilanski, episode
- 28:31of Worlds to Conquer. Go find people who share your values and
- 28:34change the world.