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What is your why?

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So my why is,

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so on a very personal level, the why is where it started.

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So the why started,

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for those of you who are listening in or watching,

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is I am as of this recording 66 years old.

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So I have been in the corporate world and always in sales.

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Did a few other things while I was in there,

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but always sales was part of it, the majority of it.

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And this became my area of expertise.

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And sales is all about helping people.

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And I've done that throughout my entire career

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and life outside with community service

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and things like that.

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So I wanted to continue on doing that when I retired.

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So what am I gonna do to keep myself feeling busy,

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but feeling fulfilled and everything else?

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So I started, been there consulting services,

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which was completely undefined.

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It was just, I did it and I started just going out

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and seeing what I could do to help people.

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And then when it focused it on sales,

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sales coaching particularly,

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with the request of a couple of businesses.

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And at the very end of 2023,

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it automatically became a business.

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I had clients before I was ready for them.

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I didn't have a business structure set up,

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but anything.

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And so, but the goal was when I started

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was to enjoy myself.

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So to just get up and enjoy myself,

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helping other people and do what I love to do

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without having all the corporate pressure

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that I carried every single day for over four decades.

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And the, when it turned into a business,

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which it really is now,

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I got all kinds of things going on in the business

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and all kinds of different legs, if you will.

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But my number one goal and priority for myself

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is my why is to continue to do this

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and really enjoy myself every day.

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And I work a lot of hours.

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I get up at four o'clock in the morning,

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start exercising, then jump right into it.

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And I go to, too tired to stop because I want to.

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And I'd be there and then join it.

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So that's my ultimate why was to do that.

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But now it's also to build a ongoing recurring income

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that will sustain itself beyond the time I'm working

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where I'll still have revenue streams coming in

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to support my wife and my family, my grandchildren,

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and my business partners.

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So, you know, have things that'll go on

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when I'm completely done and just want a vacation

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with my wife and do whatever we're gonna do

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when she retires, that this business will be going on.

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And there'll be all kinds of products and services

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that'll help people by themselves

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without having to me be part of all of it.

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But I could still never see myself not getting out

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and doing speaking engagements and workshops

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and things like that.

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Yeah.

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So how did I do?

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You did well.

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Thank you.

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I want to ask though, you love building sales.

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You love building those.

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I don't know what your schedule is

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but you do exactly from four a.m. up till you can go.

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I'm assuming you enjoy that so much

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that you don't want to do anything else.

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Outside of my hobbies, that's true.

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So what I've done in order to keep doing this,

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I've had to invest in getting other people to help me.

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So you could get so involved in working

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on all the things you need to do

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to keep your business going,

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that you're not doing the part that you love to do.

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And by the way, for me, there's no middle of the road.

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I either love that part or I hate it.

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And I could tell you that I don't enjoy the admin part.

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I don't enjoy all those other things.

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So I have an assistant that does

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all my operational type things with the marketing piece,

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getting the newsletters, the blogs, my presentations,

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does all that work.

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I provide the content and all the postings

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and everything else,

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that's all handled by one another person.

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I have a person that's even more local to me

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that's with me during the daytime,

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during the operating hours,

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who could help me with the scheduling.

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I had to turn all my scheduling over to her

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because she'll be stricter than I am and make sure.

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And then she also reviews my emails

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and she takes out all the emails

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that I should never have to see,

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that they're spam, they're junk,

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there's just no value there for me.

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So she pulls all that stuff out and it's amazing.

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And a little bit eerie to open up a mailbox

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that's always full of unread emails

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and see no unread emails there

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because she leaves the ones for me, like from you,

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those will always be in there and I'll see them.

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Or she'll respond back to you,

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the old Phil's not available,

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but I'm giving him your message, he's got it,

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and you'll know, you'll get a response.

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So that all that stuff, which took up so much time.

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Yeah.

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You could do that all day long.

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I have, some people have a hard time letting go.

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For me, I can't get rid of it fast enough.

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So, it's just like, you got it, you got it, you got it.

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And I trust everybody until,

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unless there's a reason not to trust them.

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But I didn't hire them not to trust them at some point.

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So you get good people and they do great.

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And then I have a bookkeeper to handle the books

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and a lawyer when I need a lawyer for good reasons,

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contract development, things like that.

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And I just stay away from all that stuff.

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So you gotta make the financial investment

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in order to give yourself the time

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so you can get out there and talk with the people

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you wanna talk with, who you are.

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The reason I love doing this is because

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the more time I have with those people,

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I'm totally excited and enthused.

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And that's what I talk about with my wife

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at the end of the day.

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It's not how much money was made or all this other stuff.

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It's about how these people,

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what they're saying about the coaching

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or what they're saying about the book.

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It's just great.

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Yeah, it's awesome.

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I wanna dive deeper into what you just mentioned.

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You can't get away from the things

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you don't wanna do fast enough.

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This kind of mentality is very rare to see

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in the entrepreneurial world

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because people consider themselves as entrepreneurs,

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but essentially they are solo entrepreneurs

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trying to be entrepreneurs,

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but they don't have the way to do it.

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They don't have the way to take something

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they want to build, they have a trade, they know.

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And if they get all around with a lot of stuff.

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So how did you do it?

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Well,

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I recognize that I'm not 30 years old.

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So, and I'm not gonna,

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I'm in really good health and I feel really, really good,

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in good shape.

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And so, I plan on going a long time,

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but it's not like building a career

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over the next 20 or 30 years.

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So I escalated, accelerated is a better word.

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I accelerated everything from the norm.

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So, when people say, Phil, these things take a long time,

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we gotta give them time to develop.

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I said, well, no, I'm gonna figure out

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what it's gonna take to get the pot to boil faster,

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but the correct way without skipping.

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You can't skip things.

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So the way I did it was as soon as I realized something,

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I've got good coaches around me, I hired coaches,

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so I could learn from them, from successful entrepreneurs.

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I listened to books and the audio books

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and read the books from successful people

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that are very good at this

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and very well respected worldwide.

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And I take what they're doing seriously

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and I implement as much of it as I can, as fast as I can.

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And that's how I do it,

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because I recognize when something's not working

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and something's usually not working,

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it could be for a multitude of reasons.

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Some stuff that I've done and invested in just were fails,

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but it was a learning experience.

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And I just then sit around and mope about it.

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I just learned from it and moved on

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and went to the next place and it got better

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because I didn't make the same mistake.

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And so that's how I did it,

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but it was with the help of a lot of people around me

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and the resources that are out there

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if you take advantage of them,

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but staying really focused on what it is

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and recognizing when something's not working

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to do something about it, because it's not gonna fix itself.

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Yeah.

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Phil, what did you have to give up

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to get the expertise of other people?

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What did I have to give up?

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I, well, it takes time and money.

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So I've, because of where I started in my, at this point,

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is I've been able to self-fund.

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So I've been funding this out of my own savings

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and everything else.

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And it's been a pretty substantial investment

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because quality coaching and people around,

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they don't come, you know, if you invest a dollar,

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you get a dollar's worth of help.

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If you invest 20, 30, $40,000 at a time,

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you get that level of help.

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And so there was a financial investment.

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The other thing that was sacrificed is time.

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And time is something you just can't get back.

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So you can't make more time.

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So you have to utilize it better.

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But in order to do this, it's an investment in time.

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And investment was that, you know,

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when I'm listening to this stuff,

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I try and do as much as I can while I'm doing other things,

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like working out, walking, driving,

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to absorb as much information.

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I can't have those kinds of meetings

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where I don't have to take notes necessarily.

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So, yeah, because I don't have the ability to.

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And so the time was really time and cash investment was big.

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But I didn't have to get into credit debt, you know,

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where you're now, now you're getting things going

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and you're there.

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So money's not cheap right now as of this recording.

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So, you know, so when money gets really cheap,

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I'll use other people's money.

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If I need it.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is gonna get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.