travel. You like to help entrepreneurs and you've been doing this, I'm assuming in more
than one part of the world considering you like to travel. So what are some of the destinations
Rell that you've been to in the last couple of years?
Okay. So I mean, one of my favorite is I went to Kathmandu. I was opening speaker at a conference
in Kathmandu. It was a Saturday morning that I opened the conference, spent the day at
the conference and then Sunday morning, 4am got a driver to drive me to the highest point
outside Kathmandu where I could see the sunrise of Everest and the eight other peaks of the
Himalayas. And so that was pretty spiritual moment. And that was pretty cool. It was nice
to do. It was just, you know, it's one of those bucket list experiences where you go,
the only thing I could have done better was flown over Everest, you know, and there were
flights that I could have done at that same time. But I just went being in the fresh air
in the middle of the forest, forests on it. And it was interesting spot because they had
a metal platform, which is quite rickety given the construction standards in Nepal. And it
would have been 20 meters high. And you climbed up onto the top of that on top of a mountain
and you got this really 360 degree view of all the peaks of the Himalayas. So that's
one of my most interesting experiences as a traveler. I was doing some work in your
part of the world in a small town called Tula Vista, right on the Mexican border. Also a
couple of years ago before COVID. And the demographic of the town really intrigued me
because I was expecting a third because it was on the border of a third world country.
I was expecting third world and yet it was incredibly money. I was working with a group
of fitness centers there. And, you know, in the car park was just Mercedes and Jaguar
and Lexus and whatever else. It wasn't, there were no beat up 20 year old cars in that car
park. The rental car I had was the cheapest car in the car in the parking lot. You know,
so you learn different things about different people by doing that. I've spent a lot of
time in Northern Canada. Keep going. I just wanted to validate what you're saying. This
is Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat. He's got a new edition. This was back from
2009. I think I read this book. Maybe it was 2010. So there's lots of experiences. The
world is living. Being in Auckland in New Zealand and they have something called the
Viaduct, which is their harbor and running around the Viaduct at six in the morning,
actually going through a speech. I was there for a speech engagement and actually going
through the speech in my head as I was jogging through the Viaduct, I came across a Maori
fisherman and it was just perfectly positioned against the sunrise. And I took a photo of
that. I asked his permission because there's a whole cultural thing about taking photographs
and taking someone's soul with a photograph and took this photograph. And that later in
the day was the backdrop to the stage when I spoke. And you've got to talk to him. I
got to talk to him about his 6 a.m. fishing stint in the middle of the Viaduct. And actually
later that day after I'd spoken, I went back to the Viaduct and the around the world race
yachts were busy coming in. And so it was quite a vibey, interesting experience. And
that's why I do what I do. That's why I travel the world talking to people.
That's nice. That's awesome. And that is neat to see the different perspectives that exist
out there as we get ready to transition and talk about the vision that you have and where
you're going with what you're doing. First, what are three resources that have helped
you get to where you are currently?
People. So when I transitioned from my own health scare into being a professional speaker,
one of the things is I reached out to people. I have no fear. A great friend of mine, a
great friend of mine says the greatest resource you have is here and it's your mobile phone.
And I said, what do you mean? And he said, just go through your mobile phone and see
how many contacts you have. And I've kept this contact list going for the last 25 years
that I've been in Australia and still contacts from from prior to arriving. And there were
seven thousand people in my phone. And so I've developed probably a thick skin where
I don't care. I'm happy to reach out to people randomly that I haven't spoken to for five
years and go, hey, I'm in your town. You want to have a coffee, you know, or or so. But
by by never slamming doors behind you, I think that's the greatest resource. If I was to
say one is is you just build relationships. Some of my greatest experiences of traveling
around the world, doing meeting people have been through chance meetings with other people
and just following up. And so that that to me is the greatest resource that the second
one is, you know, there's as you know, there's a ton of books in this in this office. I'm
in my home office at the moment, not my work office. The there are tons of books written
and as someone who's published a few books, I've got to a point where I can, you know,
extract. I don't really necessarily have any book that I go, wow, I've read the whole thing
17 times, but I've taken bits and pieces out of everything. And that's the second thing.
And the third thing is I watch a lot of other professional speakers. And do I learn if I
watch a speaker for an hour? Am I learning for an hour? No, not a lot of the time. And
a lot of people go, if I'm not learning for an hour, I'm not going to do it. Well, no,
if you can get two minutes of value in that hour, that's going to make you a better person.
Do that. And so that's why you you know, I had a teacher at school who said you've got
two years and one mouth, you know, listen more than you speak. And so that that is just
about listening to people. I'm an auditory learner, visual learner. I can sit in a two
day conference and take half a page of notes. But six months later, I'll quote back to other
speakers what they said. That's just the way my brain is wired. And so yeah, I that's the
resource. It's just about being open to learning. And it's taken me too close to my 60th birthday
to actually become coachable. So a lot of people are not coachable. A lot of entrepreneurs
that I work with have massive egos that get in the way. Would I be would I be at fault
if I said I can see that? So yeah, that well, in my book, in my first book that I published
in 2018, I make the comment in the opening chapter, it says sometimes in my life, I've
mixed up confidence, overconfidence and arrogance. And it's taken me till till you know, this
time in my life to actually learn how to be coachable, learn how to take advice from people.
And that that's probably the fourth of those things that I'd give people is learn to be
coachable early in your life, because I would have been much different person if I'd taken
advice early on. Yeah, that's a beauty of the virtue of self assuredness, right? But
the bias of arrogance, and how close they can be. Yet, it's funny, even our virtues
can get in our way, right? There's times to be self assured. And there's times to be a
little bit more humble, which doesn't mean submission. It means appreciation for other
perspectives. So well said. Really, I like that a lot. So people, books, and watching
speakers, fantastic advice, we're going to come back and we're going to dive into real
brickers vision on traveling entrepreneurship, and he'll unfold a lot of the a lot of the
experiences that have gotten to where he is so that we can help you take your vision to
the next level. All right, welcome in to vision pros live with Jackson Callum. I'm your show
host, we'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up and welcome into another episode of vision pros live. I'm your show host, Jackson
Callum, founder and CEO of First Class Business. I'm excited to have real bricker on today.
We're going to be talking about his incredible depth of cultural wellness through his travel
experiences and entrepreneurship. And our mutual goal will be to inspire you to perhaps
consider what travel opportunities you have ahead and maybe take that leap of faith, but
also to consider what other types of pros and cons exist in relation to nomad lifestyles
and you know, being having a having a set station, there are pros and cons to being
part of a specific community and staying in, I guess the world you were born within, and
also maybe picking up your roots and going to check in life out. I think it's very important
for us to discuss, given that most of the world gravitates towards one or the other
and doesn't want to look at the cons of what they choose. So we'll be diving into that
hard and heavy. Before I bring rail onto the show again, we're going to talk about some
of these resources we recommend to you. The first one is Dave Morrow's Hard2Kill.org.
Dave's helping 100,000 veterans lose 2 million pounds collectively. Now, my friends, the
veterans that are out there, they come home. There's a great movie, a difficult movie to
watch called Thank You for Your Service. A bit of a slap in the face of the reality of
what they have to go through. Some of these veterans lose their identity. They end up
gaining weight, falling into depression, and the suicide rates are just too high for veterans.
We shouldn't be losing any of our armed forces that are protecting us. And what Dave's been
able to put together to help people lose weight is absolutely inspiring to me. And he's opened
it to civilians like myself as well. It's helped me a lot get back on track with my
health and wellness. So I highly recommend checking it out and seeing what the free community
looks like and seeing if it inspires you to dive in from there. The next sponsor is Opportunities.
Opa de Ane Se Trabajo Para Latinos. How do I say that in English? Specifically. This
program is homegrown. We actually train virtual assistants, digital ambassadors, as we call
them all over the world to learn how to find a job, how to use Fiverr, LinkedIn, Upwork,
Canva. A lot of them don't even know that exists. So my hope with this is if you know
a Latino leader that would be interested in sharing their message, send them our way because
we have a Spanish based podcast as well. And we would love to host them and inspire the
world. We've got lots of people in this world to help. And there's so many people out there
who are highly qualified to help you and I build our resources out, visionaries, but
they don't even know that opportunities exist. We're trying to create awareness for that.
And we're hosting amazing leaders like La Teacher Alma and Kike Inglis who has 900,000
subscribers on YouTube. It's amazing what our Latino team has been able to do to get
off the races with this platform in just a few short months. So check that out and see
how you can help if you enjoy helping people in Central and South America. And lastly,
there's the water project. I wish I had my water bottle on me. I don't, but the water
project helps people who don't have access to clean drinking water at all. I've never
been thirsty in my life. I'm not truly thirsty. So when I came across this, I had to really
meditate on what this could be like. What would it be like to have my kids have to leave
school and walk a dangerous three to five miles to potentially find water for their
community or to have to leave work and to go get water to make sure that I could do
the laundry that night or feed my family. I know it hits heavy and it hits hard. My
hope is that all of us can consider contributing to a project like this one. I love how transparent
they are. You get to pick a community that you support. You get to see what they're up
to. And then once they finish the project, they send you the social proof. They send
you pictures of what happened and how they were able to help the community out. When
I see these kids celebrating water, like my kids celebrate Christmas day, it just, it
hits all the fields. So if you're not in a position to financially give back to the water
project, my other hope is that maybe you'll just bring this up in conversation with a
friend. Maybe you'll consider sharing this with somebody, tagging them on it. And not
us specifically. I'm talking about sharing the water project. We've got 8 billion people
to help in this world. So let's dive in and do that together. Without further ado, let's
help all of you guys with your visions. Rael Bricker, welcome to Vision Pros Live.
Thank you, Jackson. And still happy to, yeah, happy to be here and having this conversation
and, and, and just, can I comment on one of your sponsors? So something goes back to when
I was a 21 year old, a 20 year old at university, some 40 years ago, in our, one of our years
at university, we were given a project to do, you know, a group project, design a water
system. We, I grew up in South Africa. It was based on rural African village. And we
were asked to design something to give them clean, potable water. And I was an electrical
engineer, not a mechanical, chemical engineer. So this was just a generic engineering project.
And I remember that some of us went a bit overboard and running, you know, $4 million
worth of electrical cables to this village to run pumps and everything else. And, and
one of the teams that actually won and had the best solution took a bicycle and put a
pump and literally the local village could, could, could take turns at bicycle, pedaling
the spike, pump water, and it had a, a filtration system that worked on pressure. I don't remember
many details 40 years later, but it was an incredibly innovative design for the problem
of fresh potable water, or at least potable water that's drinkable in rural communities
around the world.
Oh, I love it. Kinetic energy for the win, right? For those of you who are going to nerd
out on the science stuff with us. And yes, there's, there's so many things we can do.
I mean, like to get involved and to help. And I find that that's where my greatest joys
and peace come from in life is paying attention to things like that. So thanks for doubling
down with me.
Yeah. So that's, yeah. So that was just a 40 year old experience. And I guess that's,
you know, my late father gave me one philosophy in life. He died when he was 59. He died too
young. And so reaching 60 this year was quite a milestone. But he said that one day when
he retires, he wants to have 40 years experience, not one year 40 times over. And that to me
has been a philosophical driver of the last 40 years is that every year must be different.
I mean, I've run a financial services group for 23 years and people say, Oh, aren't you
bored? And I go, no, because every single person who sits in my office or talks to me
or talks to one of my team has a different story, has a different vision on their own
life, has a different objective of what they want to buy property for, what they want to
do, how they want to retire. And so that makes me happy because I'm excited to talk to all
these people.
Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's amazing what happens when we become a bit self aware, right
of our opportunities that exist around us and dive into those. So, Rell, what is, what's
the vision for the people that you serve? What do you want to see them be able to accomplish?
What's their life look like?
Well, take it on two different levels. The one is obviously on their business entrepreneurial
level and the other is on a personal development level. And so I shared different stories on
stage for different reasons. On a business level, it's about optimizing people and process
because that's all businesses. It's either people or process. And if you can work out
which one of those is the problem, you optimize people and process, and then you get productivity
and profitability. You know, the back of my first book, the one published in 2018 called
Dive In says business is not complicated. Business is simple. Just dive in and adjust
your course while you're moving.
I'll challenge that. And here's why I love it. I love the simplicity because the human
body is so simple that my three year old can draw it. It's that, it's that simple and easy.
And it's also so complicated that a doctor can study it for 40 years and still not scratch
the surface of understanding it at the nth degree. And so while I agree that business
is simple, I think one of the greatest traps that people fall into is they overgeneralize
and oversimplify the reality. And they say, well, he just said fix the process and I feel
like I fixed it. So why isn't it working? And it's because they're looking at that without
the context of the realities that, you know, you've got, if you've got a restaurant, right?
And I've got a recipe book, 300 recipes, maybe even five recipes, all simple, easy to cook,
right? But I've got to deliver it at the right time, at the right temperature to the right
person, have the right host team member greet them. I've got to have the spoilage. I got
to be aware of that, the costs associated with it. So no, it is simple, but it is, it
is far from easy and it's complex. Well, yes and no. And I'm going to challenge you on
that one because I'm excited for it. What I mean by business being simple is that I
get entrepreneurs coming to me for advice as a coach, as a mentor and going, I'm on
spreadsheet number 27 and I think this business works. And I go, that's 26 spreadsheets, too
many. Okay. Because at the end of the day, if you've got a vision of your business and
whatever that may be, you know, it doesn't really matter. As long as you have an intrinsic
belief that it's going to work, you go for it and you don't overthink it. And I, and
I've done that lots of times in different businesses that I've started, I've not overthought
it. And so when I say business is not complicated, it's about that overthinking it. We overthink
it. We go, oh, we need to build a $2 million RT system, you know, and whatever, whatever
to start. No, you don't. I mean, I think in the current world, interestingly in the venture
capital space, the concept of an MVP, and that's not the most value play, that's the
minimum viable product, has changed the mindset because, you know, 20 years ago, in
entrepreneurs would go off and spend two years in a bunker or sitting in the hills, developing
the product. Yep. Today, they're going for minimum viable product and going, how do we
put this out there in the market to see if it works? And if it doesn't work, let's change
it. And so that's philosophically where I come from with with entrepreneurs is correct
is is do it. If it doesn't work, change it. And just your course, don't stick your head
down in the sand for two years because you're going to be dead. Well, it is a very important
difference between the startups that can abide by agile and building the hyperloop, right,
where you might kill people if you if you listen to that advice. So there's there's
a context, right? There's a nuance about it. And our audience, we don't really control
which entrepreneur they are. But there are certain repercussions. You can take one side
of it, the great side. And I'm with you. Elon Musk sold one hundred and eighty thousand cars from stage that wouldn't
exist for two to three years. It was the most brilliant vision, culture, marketing play
I've ever seen. Right. And in addition to that, somebody else tried to do the same thing
with a with an event. His name was Ja Rule. And he also got a documentary featured on
him and he went to prison because he couldn't fulfill the vision that he laid out there.
So we still have they have to balance the idea of, OK, agile matters. Waterfall matters.
We as entrepreneurs, you can overthink it, but you can also step in the Lamborghini,
hit the gas pedal and find yourself in a brick wall before you know it. And if you've got
a family to protect and provide for, we need to be aware of that, too. There's a there's
an end here, not an either, in my opinion. Absolutely. There is. And I and again, I see
lots of entrepreneurs coming up with brilliant ideas. But at the end of the day, when I talk
to them and they go, OK, this is, you know, this solves this narrow problem. I mean, there
was a in my very first business I started, we used to to to do something called functional
benchmarking with clients. Sounds really technical. And all functional benchmarking meant was if
you want to benchmark your business benchmark it not against your competitor, because then
you're just doing more of the same benchmark against a narrow vision of somebody who is
doing something specific. So the classic example we used to use at the time was if you wanted
the best micro billing system in the world, right, micro billing for a whole lot of reasons
was it was an emerging technology at the time. We said go to American Express. Look at what
American Express do right as a micro billing business model for that part of your business.
And that's what functional benchmarking is. You benchmark different aspects of your business
against the best in its class, not necessarily your competitors. And there's there's a book
that made it. I didn't actually realize I was doing it. I was quoted on their website.
There's an article of mine on on on their website, and it's finding the blue ocean,
okay, and not and not competing in the red ocean. And if you go to the blue ocean website,
there was a blog I wrote that they've re quoted on the on the website. And there's a chapter
in the book called finding your blue ocean. And that is literally about finding that,
that that narrow niche outside the mass market, where you can establish yourself on one dimension
or two dimensions, not 20. You know, it's interesting the and again, I get to play the
devil's advocate on these, right? I get to play the color commentator. And it's not because
I don't one. Let me let me highlight that. I love the functional benchmarking process.
That's a great that's a great way to put it to I will be giving you credit as I talk about
that with clients. I didn't realize how close it was what we were doing to to what you said.
And the challenge I face the clients on that we're going to circle back to this blue ocean
though, because this matters a lot. I believe in the red ocean, more than the blue ocean,
actually, the the process of functional benchmarking, I see a lot of clients do that. And they get
addicted to believing that, oh, we're going to be just like that entity on day one. I'm
I'm obviously being a little bit exaggerated. But or they say, you know what, we're going
to this is the industry benchmarks, we should be at the industry benchmarks. Hey, rookie,
you just got to the industry, you've got no shot at hitting their standards, you need
to first have the infrastructure that all those bad boys created before you're ever
going to compete with them or the elites. And ideally, yeah, we would actually surpass
and build beyond but the the b hag process, right big, hairy, audacious goals and trying
to set the standards in life, and the smart goals. I think they I think they kind of overlap
and can go hand in hand. The blue ocean challenge that I see a lot of people fall into is that
they blindly adopt that behavior and model is they forget that if you go to a blue ocean,
a truly blue one, nobody's there. And so you don't you then have to create marketing campaigns
at the awareness level that are nothing like the processes of if you're in a red ocean,
where every single person's at the end, you believe in it, obviously, don't go open a
vape shop just because somebody tells you it's a good idea. You have to have that passion.
But if you're a dentist, and you're in San Antonio, Texas, and you happen to be dedicated
to what you do, and you're passionate, and you do what what rail said, people and processes,
you get those methods, right, you're going to rise to the top very, very fast and stand
out as the easy choice in the market. All the awareness is taken care of people are
sick of getting bad service and bad hospitality. So there's a value to both the red and the
blues. My challenge to all of you visionaries listening in is don't listen to me. Don't
listen to rail. Our experiences are unique to ourselves. Neither one of us know what
you should do. You are the visionary of your own visions. And our perspectives are meant
to help paint a picture so that based on where you're at, you can intuitively select what
rail said makes sense. Oh, what Jackson said makes sense. Both perspectives can help you.
Go ahead. Absolutely. So that, you know, and I'll so I the blue ocean only came to me as
a as a as a real understanding when I was doing triathlons 11 years ago. Yeah. And that
was before we did it at Rock Strong Connect. It was super helpful. But it was a balance
to both. Yeah. But it came to me when I was doing my first triathlon and I was standing
on the beach in a pink bathing cap, which is just another vision that we're gonna leave
behind. And I was in the 40 to 49 year age group. I was 49. And I was doing my first
series of triathlons as a person who just likes to have these experiences. And I stood
on the beach and I realized I'd never done a swim in the ocean. I'd all done all my swimming
in a swimming pool, the black line and people Nate neatly ahead of me and people neatly
behind me. And so when I suddenly stood on that beach and I realized there were 50 of
us going to run into that water. And the first experience was that red ocean that that churn
people kicking me in the head me kicking people behind me, you know, all that kind of stuff.
And that was when I truly understood that all I needed to do with my choice was not
go way out into the blue ocean. Just swim on the edge of that red ocean. And I would
find clear water. And that is a is a business concept is exactly what you do. You just on
the edge, you find your niche that can still compete. I mean, I'm in a finance industry.
I have been for 20, I mean, and to have some fun with your analogy or get a boat and stop
swimming and getting drowned by people. So there's a lot of fun context and symbolism
that can exist. And again, I appreciate the perspective of both oceans. They both matter.
And I think you've I think you've hit those points super, super well. The the challenge
now from a let's talk about balance because you've been able to do that. I loved your
story about how you know, you got to see the Mount Everest, you know, and really take in
that vision. I mean, you had to you had to intentionally take your time to go and do
that. And you didn't see it as a chore. You saw it as an opportunity. Anybody else could
have said, Well, let me just dive into email with the extra hour I have. Right. You you
created a balance for yourself. So how did you what point in life did you start to prioritize
balance and travel and experience?
Many years ago, I mean, I guess my first big travel experience was in in 1997, after I
listed my first business on the stock exchange. And then I had a year's contract. I left the
business in August 97. And I was a bit lost. You know, I'd been in that business 24 hours
a day for seven years and great success. And we managed we reversed listed interest into
a listed shell. We had done nine acquisitions for that shell of 18 months. And then I said,
My time is up. And I walked away. And it was quite sad. It was I was crying on stage when
I think the team that that you had 160 stuff. And the next week, I saw a special ticket
for around the world travel. And I looked at my wife and I said, We've got two small
kids have a four year old and a one year old or three and a half year old and one year
old. Let's go traveling. And we traveled for five months with two small kids, a dial up
modem laptop, because that's what you had in those days that weighed about 12 kilos
all of its own. A mobile phone that you know, there was no roaming or anything like that
in those days. And, you know, you had to get some cards for different countries. It was
quite interesting. But but the experience of of traveling the world at that age, you
know, a lot of people do that round the world trip when they retired and they're 65 or 70.
I got to do that when I was in my 30s. And it was an amazing eye opening experience.
We did 22 flights over that five month period, went from South Africa through Europe, South
Africa through Europe to the US and back through Australia, we were still living in South Africa,
left South Africa with about 80 kilograms of luggage, we traveled too heavy in those
days and arrived back with 160 kilograms, because we acquired stuff along the way and
extra bags. And it was quite funny as we got to Europe, I rented a small Fiat, because
we are bags. By the time I was in Australia, I was renting four wheel drives just to take
our luggage. Yeah, so
dude, you were a digital nomad pioneer.
Yeah, very. I mean, I'd like to think so. I mean, I have a tech background. I have a
two master's degrees, one of them is in software engineering, others in MBA. And I did both
of those in the 80s. So I don't call myself a software engineer anymore. But I've always
embraced as technology. And so in 2001, as an example, or 2000, we were traveling the
world with a venture fund that I was with in Australia, we're just listed on the Australian
Stock Exchange. We did a trip through Israel looking at startups. And then we went to the
valley to San Francisco. And we were still trading actively trading shares on the Australian
stock market 20 odd years ago. And I had a laptop again, with a worldwide dialing thing
that gave me local access to the internet on dial up modems in any country. And so I'm
gonna dive into me here because I got it. So that's the day.
Here's why you guys are listening in. I'm not cutting rail off because I don't like
the story. But because he shares this type of stuff on all the other podcasts he's on,
he gets to talk about all the lovely and the rosies. And what I'm catching is we got a
depth of wisdom to be able to dive into and truly learn from. I also did the digital nomad
lifestyle I ran into the pros and cons. I don't see hardly anybody on the on the planet
talking about the cons. Why? Because it's easier to sell what's attractive. And it's
easy to sell what's easy. But what I think we have a responsibility to do is also help
all of you considering that to understand like, well, what are some of the things we
should watch out for? If we're going that route? What are the some of the things that
we can prepare for that some of the some families out there may take for granted about travel
with young kids or how it affects a husband and wife to be around each other 24 seven.
Right? There's there's different I don't know what your life was like. I know mine was.
But real, what what kind of wisdom can you can you grant us about the maybe some of the
things we overlook as we get prepared to follow your steps?
So, I mean, my kids grew up traveling from a very young age. And we were we were lucky,
I guess that, you know, you get onto an airplane and you see the kid open their mouth and scream
for four hours. My kids would never like that. Huge plus. And so we were lucky. Okay. Me
too. But part of it was the calmness that I guess my wife and I exuded like we were
never stressed except for one time where we landed in Chicago and didn't realize there
was a time change and had to sprint from gate one to gate 20 to get the kids and us onto
the next plane. But that's just part of the experience of doing it. You know what? So
so we we were fairly chilled and we we didn't we stayed in each place for five to seven
days or even longer. So we we managed to establish a base. The first thing we did in every town
and every city we went to, whether it was in the small island in Greece, you know, or,
you know, in Beverly Hills, you know, it doesn't matter. The first thing we did is we got to
our hotel or our apartment and I went out exploring or foraging, as my wife used to
say. And I used to forage for things like not really forest foraging, just as a shop
foraging things, you know, the basics that we needed in any town. So our kids, you know,
needed milk to drink because they grew up on cow's milk, not formula. OK, so we'd go
out and buy fresh milk and cheese and crackers and snacks for the kids. And then we would
often have I remember quite distinctly a number of hotel rooms putting going down to reception
or asking reception to send us some towels. And we would have a picnic with two small girls
on the floor of the hotel room, overlooking the patio, overlooking the view, whatever
it was. And that's how we would kind of relax. And then, you know, we had a double stroller
pram. And so that was one of the best things we ever did for traveling with kids that both
of them could be in the stroller. And interestingly, the one we bought in London, you could take
straight into a black cab with the two kids in it. You didn't have to fold it up because
they only said in the world where you could take the kids in the stroller straight into
the into the taxi and you didn't have to worry about it. You know, that's just a little and
it was because it was detailed. They make it they make a pretty big difference. Yeah.
I mean, it wasn't wired like a lot of the strollers I see people traveling with today are two
kids next to each other. They were you got the one we had back in front. And that went
straight into a taxi in London. Didn't do it anymore else. But there was little things
like that that were probably they're not by design, but kind of worked for us, you know,
and that made our travels quite easy. Mixing up here to say that you you seem like you
live in a moment like you're very present and centered. And I think that does contribute
a lot to being able to manage the the flow of events. Is that is that something you discovered
pretty early on is how to live in the moment? Yeah. It's the same philosophy as business
is not overthinking it too much. Yeah. You know, we would be traveling. And when you're
traveling with kids, you know, you don't you don't set plans weeks in advance because they
don't work. Right. You wake up in the morning and you see how the kids today, you know,
can we can we do a museum? And so when you travel with kids, your what you do is very
different to when you know, my wife and I've traveled as adults, we've been to Wimbledon
to the semifinals at Wimbledon. You know, we've done stuff like that on an adult level.
We've been to the Midnacht show at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, you know, and so you don't
do those things when you're traveling with kids. It changes your perspective. But but
you just adjust. And a lot I see a lot of young couples today with young kids try and
run their adult life when traveling with kids. And you can't do that. You have to separate
that out. We rob we rob the kids, we rob the family, right. And we're focused on that.
We my my wife and I, my first marriage, we our kids are one, three and five. And we did
a 41 day road trip up to California coastline. And the balance was phenomenal. We had an
excellent trip. It took some important planning and some important flexibility. And we fortunately
didn't run into any major like health scares or risks as we were going through that that
could have certainly disrupted the situation. But that the logistics, the plan, the process,
my bigger point on that is, real, I think you you bring up something important. We can
bring to fruition what we want to bring to fruition with our lives as visionaries, we
have the we have the opportunity, we don't have to over complicate it. And I love that
you stand for that and that your all these stories represent that. And again, thank you
for thinking through to the families because it's it's easy to look at a podcast like this.
And I might see it in passing and be like, Oh, what does that guy know? He doesn't have
kids, you know, or he's just a businessman who doesn't care about his family. And, and
I'm hearing so much more the depth of No, there's a lot of there's a lot there's just
so much we can learn from the experiences that you've given. And I appreciate that.
One comment I would make to you is interesting. People ask me, what have I enjoyed most about
being an entrepreneur for pretty much the last, you know, 3540 years of my life. And
I said, Well, my oldest daughter is now 30 or 31 this year. And, and what I've enjoyed
is the ability to be part of their lives growing up that freedom that free. Yes, they understand
that that over the last, you know, seven, eight years, I've been traveling a lot. I've
been speaking a lot around the world. But, but often, I would make time to be at all
this school concerts. And, and at all this school events and go to the sports days at
the at the school and be involved in them. I served on the school board where my kids
all went to school for 22 years. Because I wanted to be a part of their life, they're
growing up and as an entrepreneur, I could pop into the school at 11 o'clock in the morning.
So for the last 10 years at that school, I've gone and done education programs for the year
nine, 10 and 11 on finance. And it's interesting over the last 10 years, how their knowledge
of finance is increased, like personal finance, we're not not reading financial statements
or accounting, but just being able to manage their own personal finances. And 10 years
ago, when I started, you know, 15 year olds didn't understand bank accounts, debit cards,
credit cards, all kinds of stuff. Today, I have to take it to a completely different
level. And it gives me pleasure just giving back to that school where my way all three
of my kids have been.
It's amazing. And it's, it's one of those topics to there's not everybody's gonna relate
to it. But those of you who are parents out there, I mean, those of you who have visions
that you want to fulfill, you can have your cake and you can eat it too. And I think it's
very important that we intentionally set the time up for both. I've also I'm a single father
of four these days, rail, I don't know if you know that. And so being able to be a dad,
and having three kids that live in one city, one child lives in another, and trying to
intentionally be present for all of that, it would be so easy to get overwhelming. If
I didn't have that same philosophy of simplify, you know, we make the most of the things that
do come, we flex and change things a little bit differently than what perhaps your typical
expectation is. The nice thing about the entrepreneurship side is we get to we get to experience luxuries
that others may never even be able to understand of what's possible about our lifestyles. And
are there challenges? Yes, there are. So entrepreneurs who are listening in, if you're already on
that path in the middle of that journey, my hope is that you reach out to people like
well myself for mentorship and guidance. How do you do it? We need it to in certain aspects.
Rails learning at 60, right? How to how to continue to do things too. But when you surround
yourself with people who have the types of experiences that you want to have, and the
types of mindsets and philosophies, you can end up maximizing your life in ways that we
wouldn't be able to do without those people as part of our life. And my my Facebook says
and probably always will say, DAD is greater than CEO, right? That role of being a father,
no matter how old the kids are matters. So rail, thank you, because there's not a lot
of people from your generation that had the mindset to take the opportunity to do what
you and your wife did. But you paved the path for a lot of people like myself to be able
to follow it. And that's just awesome. Fantastic. I'm glad I could, could, could do that. Because
yeah, I go back to living life every day. 11 years ago, I had a major health scare.
I was had two cardiac stents at age 49. And yet I'm today probably fitter and stronger
than I was. And I was a state sports. I played state sport level. I played hockey. That's
not the thing you do in the US with a white flat piece of thing on it on us. This is on
grass. I played grass hockey, or out, you know, field hockey. And I still play at age
60. I play master's level hockey at age 60. So so I stopped for 27 years. And I started
again after my stents. And I love it. I played two or three days a week. And that amongst
all the other exercise I do is what drives me today, you know, that that's my timeout.
That's my complete pressure valve that I turn off. We might go overboard. But I got to ask
my favorite question. Yeah. If this was your last opportunity to speak, well, what powerful
lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience? I think I think just to be aware
of everything around you. I mean, I, you know, a lot of people do walk around with blinkers,
like the horses and you know, the horse racing. I love sunrise and sunset and why because
I often am exercising at that time of day. And I will be in the middle of a run or a
middle of a walk and I will stop and take photographs of the sunrise or sunset. Because
I think they both have incredible possibilities in our lives. And it's about it just, you
know, I'll be, I'll be cycling along. I do a lot of writing as well. And I'll stop on
the side and I'll go, that's a pretty picture. That's a nice picture. Or I'll phone my wife
and go, you know what I saw while I was writing today? It's just because I'm riding with this
wide open vision or I'm running or walking with that wide open vision. And I think that's
what you can do in life in business. You know, in Japan in the seventies, they had this idea
of management by walking around. I go to my team every day and I take my coffee when I
get to the office and I sit down in the open plan area and I talk to them. I ask them how
their lives are. I've already getting messages that we're recording this at 730 in the morning
here. There's messages from my staff. One of them said she's not feeling well. She's
not coming in today. She'll work from home. But I'll walk in and I'll check her out for
everyone. I haven't messaged her back because the message came through while we were recording.
But you know, that kind of thing. I will sit there and say, what problems are you having
today? What clients are giving you issues? This is in my finance business. What clients
are you having a problem with? How can we solve the problem together? And then I'll
go off to my office and do other stuff. And I might be working on, I'm doing two keynotes
next week and I'm working on new structures for those keynotes. So I'll go to my office
and I'll work on those keynotes and then I'll be back there in half an hour because
I have concerts still. And I'll be talking to them again about something. And you know,
given that yesterday was the US elections, we had the TV running in the office and there
was a lot of commentary and a lot of banter and a lot of discussion about it. And it's
about that openness and willingness to talk to people and get to know your team. My average
10 years, 12 years of my team. That's a long time for people to be loyal to the business
and loyal to me. And I appreciate that loyalty. Huge. That didn't come from nowhere. That
came from the openness, the open door, the willingness to talk to them and the willingness
to talk to everyone in the business about themselves and get to know them. I'm sure
that there are a few other companies out there with a 10 year similar. I haven't looked,
but I can say this. The only other company that I know for sure that has that type of
track record is a company named Fonda San Miguel in Austin, Texas. And after 30 years
of being in the restaurant industry, they're still consistently ranked in the top 100 restaurants
in the nation. There is a lot we can learn from taking care of our people, being present
with them. Rob, Rick, you've done an awesome job of delivering a lot of value to us today.
Vision pros for listening. And down below this episode, you'll see the action steps.
You can get a hold of Rell and talk to him. You can reach out on any social media platform.
People like Rell love to mentor. We're always accessible for the people who come with the
right types of attitude typically. Then down below that, we've got the other resources
that he mentioned so you can follow up on those. Makes it easier to compile your notes.
We have one more call to action. The top right corner of the screen, you're going to see
a button that says, be our guest. If you'd like to share your vision with us, you don't
have to be a world traveler who's helping entrepreneurs over the course of 40 years.
You might be new to your vision. You might have a brand new family and you want to talk
about how to be the best parent you can. We're looking for leaders that are coming in and
helping bless our lives and lives of others. And if you feel like that's you, then definitely
apply and come on the show. Rell, thank you so much for being on the show today. And Vision
Pros, we will see you all on the next episode. Thank you for being here today. I'm really
happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward. This is going to get more and more fun. We'll
have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision.