Work Less and Make More, Its Possible for Anyone

November marks the one year anniversary of starting my Financially Independent life. 

A life without clocking in to a corporate day job. 

A life of having total control of my destiny. 

We are 100% Financially Independent, or “FI” as they say.  This means, if I don’t do anything for income, we are financially sound and will not need to go back to trading hours for dollars.  If this sounds impossible to you, take a look at my Roadmap to FI Part I and Part II so you can start wrapping your brain around the “how” of a lifestyle like this.

New Adventures and Surprise Stages of Grief

I started a new adventure to pursue my passion of helping others reach their financial independence faster while spending more flexible time with my family.  I also feel that all the hard work is finally paying off since the beginning of starting EZ FI University. 

Time and time again, when I interview my guests on my podcast, 10,000 Roads to Financial Independence we talk about the transition between having a full time job to being truly FI.  One of my guests said it best, “Even though it is a positive thing, you still go through a period of mourning.”

I’m here to tell you that the mourning is real.  

After I quit my day job, I had the urgency of filling in those assigned hours and its income even though I knew that my family was just fine without it.  Like any grieving process, I went through the stage of denial first. 

I strengthened our FI position by closing two syndication deals in Dallas.  In March 2020, I created a 12-episode mini series to help people navigate the pandemic while continuing to invest.  In May 2020, I founded EZ FI University to fill the void that I felt in the middle of the pandemic.  Following that, we closed another deal in June 2020.  All this looked fantastic from the outside, but internally, the busyness that filled my schedule caused me to work much longer hours than my former day job.  

The Entrepreneurial Workload

I was clocking in 60-80 hours a week.  I was working as if I still had a daytime job plus a side gig.  This was the only way I knew how to live, apparently.  The pandemic did not help in providing distraction as we were under stay-at-home orders.  My two kids were home 24/7 and were driving their dad crazy since I had locked myself in the office, day and night.  The tension in our house was at an all time high, it seemed.

This was not the FI lifestyle I had envisioned for my family.  One evening, after working a 12-hour day, my daughter looked at me and asked “Mommy, why can you not spend more time with me?” 

I felt deflated instantly.

This was the wake-up call I needed. 

I knew something had to change.

And it was up to me.

Financially Free but Still Working Full-time Hours. Why?

If you are pursuing early FI, then you are automatically an entrepreneur at heart.  The danger of having control of your own time is that we tend to spend all our waking hours thinking about our business.  The new found freedom keeps us restless. The nice thing about having a daytime job (gasp, I said it!)  is that it provides an enforced routine.  This can be restrictive but also beneficial in terms of protecting us against ourselves and our innovative brains.

Innovative brains need structure and focus in order to produce the best for us.

When my daughter brought my lack of quality time with her to my attention, I realized that my entrepreneurial and innovative tendencies had completely taken over my time and priorities.

I had to ask myself, “Is this truly what I want?”

So I revisited my goals this year and really thought hard about prioritizing Family, Fun and Relationships.  A goal for 2020 was to visit 20 national parks with my family.  This was foiled by COVID-19.  The idea of having flexible time and control over our happiness sunk in. This is actually a great year to experience road travel and stay in one place for an extended amount of time, not just a weekend.  The kids don’t have to go to school, and both Jake and I don’t have the restriction of needing to clock in at a W2 job. 

One Decision at a Time

So in October 2020, I decided that our road tripping and our semi-digital nomadic life was no longer a dream.  I was going to turn it into reality.  

In November 2020, we officially started our trip.  It was a great way to escape the Seattle Grey.  For those who don't know Seattle, winter can be depressing with weeks of no sunshine.  This year, I decided to chase the sunshine and soak up my Vitamin D. 

An amazing thing happened when I decided to design my schedule around my life. 

We started our journey in Phoenix, AZ.  In that same month, we closed three multifamily deals in Phoenix, hosted our first virtual conference with over 350 paid attendees, made some amazing connections with new business and personal relationships, helped several of our students get under contract to start their new businesses and started reaping the rewards of our marketing efforts. 

By December 2020, we were enjoying Joshua Tree and the Channel Islands with no cell signals for days. 

Our properties were progressing as scheduled. 

Our investor reports rolled out as scheduled. 

Our marketing was showing results. 

I was working 1-3 days a week. 

For the first time since quitting my job, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

How Did I Make this Happen?

Prioritizing, systematizing, automating and delegating all play a huge role in creating this kind of entrepreneurial lifestyle.  

I prioritized the important people and projects. 

I initiated systems and delegated more tasks to my team.   

When I expressed to my teammates that I would not be able to work as I normally did, they stepped up.  If you are in the middle of hiring and systemizing, it may feel like a lot of work with no end.  It takes about three months for others to pick up what you are thinking when it comes to marketing. 

Knowing myself not being the most organized person, I hired people who were very organized to compensate.  I hired people who shared my passion and aligned with my cause.  You really have to understand your employees and what rocks their boat.  We also found that there is a value of paying someone who can complete tasks efficiently and effectively, even if it costs a bit more.  The desired results are amplified.  I always believed in empowering people to pursue their dreams. I have worked hard to quit my day job.  So I never wanted to be the replacement boss for someone else who is trying to become an entrepreneur.  

Hiring the Right Teammates

The old saying is that good people are hard to find.  I would modify it to say that it is hard to find good people at the right time.  I have met plenty of good people where I see their potential, but they are not in the right moment of their life to become an entrepreneur.  I envision having a company that is run entirely by people who can have the flexibility of time and choice in their work.  We harvest the best of their unique superpowers and understand that life is a tradeoff and has purpose.  When you enable others and take their life goal into consideration when hiring and put them in the right position, you have just acquired your gold mine. 

I think everything starts with identifying a need and what you are not good at. As an example, I had a string of failed attempts in outsourcing marketing and finding good copywriters.  English is not my first language.  I loved writing down ideas instead of spending time proofreading and editing.  So I went out to find a good copywriter.  I was looking in all the wrong places, because I was looking too narrowly on a particular skill.  Later on I realized that I was really hunting for the Head of Marketing for my brand.  

Ashley appeared in my life.  She is an investor of mine and a school librarian.  What is a librarian good at?  Organizing and literature!  She had aspirations to be an independent business woman, and she has a creative mind and talent for it.  So not only did I hire an awesome head of marketing, but also I hired a business partner that will help us both realize our visions. 

The most important skill that Ashley has is tenacity and more drive than I have to finish a task.  She compensates for my weakness.  So while I am away in Joshua Tree, she has been keeping our marketing going along with our marketing team.  Amazing! 

Finding out the superpowers of your potential employees and helping them amplify it regardless of their experience is an amazing way to scale your business and the people on your team.  You also need to trust what they do to let go of your responsibilities after a certain amount of training.  Using Ashley as an example again, I used to comb through her work in fear of losing my voice in our marketing.  Once I gave her more freedom to craft up our messages, they got better actually.  It is key to align with your core message and belief, communicate this message with your team, then let it go. 

The Power of No

The power of NO is also a big element of living my true FI lifestyle.  Being on a trip forced me to shuffle and remove items on my calendar and calls that are less important for me.  When I ask myself, what is the minimum I need to do to get things going, it becomes apparent that 80% of my activities were not yielding results.  I had to focus on what I do best and what moves the needle to create more time to live the life I want to live.

Compartmentalizing and Bundling Time 

Bundling my time is another skill I have implemented to achieve more personal balance. When I was forced to go offline due to lack of cell reception in Joshua Tree, I had to move all my calls and tasks to certain days. When I grouped the type of activities in one single day I was more efficient and more productive.  

For example, moving all underwriting, calling brokers and deal analysis to one day on the calendar allowed me to focus and complete ONLY these tasks. As a result, I was able to respond quicker. 

Moving all my investor and prospecting calls to one day on the calendar allowed me to better connect with these folks and replicate my notes. This cut down on system-hopping and task switching.  I was able to give better advice this way.

The Excitement of What I’m Creating 

I really look forward to more free time with my kids and also increased achievement in 2021. I want to help others learn about my new-found freedom and how to leverage systems to achieve their version of FI. 

I will hold on to the belief that 2021 will be even more amazing than 2020, in so many areas of my life. 

How about you?