This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Jackson Millan. Jackson is the CEO of Aureus Financial, a firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs turn the success in their businesses into to personal wealth. Over the last 14 years, Aureus has helped entrepreneurs create over $1.2 Billion in combined wealth from implementing Aureus strategies.

The company has been featured everywhere from the Today Show to Money Magazine and Jackson and his team show entrepreneurs how to maximize their business cashflow, reduce their time spent in the business, and create personal financial freedom.

Mmm….make more money with less time and achieve financial freedom faster? I think just about anyone would want to learn more about how to do that. So, I’ve asked Jackson to come on and share his secrets on how to do so.

The 40 point business performance scorecard https://bit.ly/AureusScorecard

Free FB group where people can get access to my books and best content http://bit.ly/YLBGroup ​

https://www.aureusfinancial.com.au/

Jackson starts out by telling the story of why he is traveling around Australia for a year right now.

Jackson’s journey started as a child. His mom was a hairdresser, and his father was very much an entrepreneur, but jumped from one thing to the next without sticking with them too long being more a dreamer. He was taught to work hard but realized there was a harsh reality of a disconnect because his parents worked 15 hour days and they had no wealth.

At 19, he decided to become a financial advisor and would not take no for an answer. He got a shot at a firm, but says it was literally disgusting, like Wolf of Wall Street type stuff. It was toxic. He thought he made a massive mistake. People were selling commission-based products to people that didn’t need them and thought about quitting.

Instead, he thought long and hard about how to do things right and what he really should be and that was a “wealth coach.” Someone who educated clients around the language of money and empowers them to grow their wealth.

You’ve said that most entrepreneurs struggle to achieve financial freedom…explain that.

• The fundamental issue that most entrepreneurs face is that they are so actively involved in their business, it becomes the be all and end of all their existence.
• The business can become a trap of a cash-eating monster that continually needs fed by the entrepreneur instead of what it should be – an investment vehicle.
• The big problem is behavior. As humans, we use the means we have available. The more means we have, the more we use.
• In other words, people tend to spend what they make increase their spending and lifestyle as their income increases.
• There is a lot of cashflow that flows through a business and most businesses aren’t managing it effectively or well enough to have it produce the freedom it can produce.

How do we use a business to its full potential? What entrepreneurs be doing to make the business a true investment vehicle?

• First, the business needs to be repositioned as the vehicle and define the destination.
• Annual Roadmap: Goal setting exercise thinking 20 years into the future. We focus a lot on short term vision, but it’s the long-term vision on 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years that makes a difference.
• What you plan for in 20 years will change, but does that mean you shouldn’t do it?
• Segment the 2 types of goals. You should be able to have your cake and eat it to.
• Map out all your lifestyle and income goals and then back into the cashflow the business has to generate to create this.
• Then, you look at the business to see how to re-engineer if needed to achieve that cashflow.

What is the Million Dollar Mindset?

• If you keep trimming the fat, you are going to cut into the muscle.
• You should not shrink yourself wealthy.
• Most are not intrinsically motivated to defer gratification.
• We must live for today and plan for tomorrow.

At the 15 min, Jackson explains the million-dollar mindset using the marshmallow experiment.

• Delaying gratification is good, but it is important to figure out how to play the game to win in context of what you want – not settle.

What practical tips can people do to keep this forefront?

• We need to write the rules. At the end of the day, it is your game.
• Come up with your 10 commandments: 10 guiding rules that are non-negotiable when it comes to making financial decisions for themselves and for their businesses.
• We never bad decisions on purpose. We make the best decision at the time. But with rules to follow, it can help us to make better decisions in the moment and increase their quality.
• The higher the quality of the decisions we make about money, the higher quality of outcomes we get.
• Next, you need a cashflow mechanism that holds you accountable. Jackson talks about this at the 20 min mark.
• Your cashflow system needs to pay yourself first. Save first and spend what is left.
• Success and creating cashflow shouldn’t be sexy. It is consistent and almost boring.

What are ways entrepreneurs can free up cashflow?

• Create a bucket strategy.
• 5-6 banks accounts Your main account is your income account where all your money from your clients, etc. comes into.
• Remove expenses from the income account and put those in a Cost of Sales account where you pay those bills out of.
• After subtracting cost of sales is real revenue that you operate your business.
• An operating account is used to manage these fixed costs – salaries, rent, etc.
• You want to have an owner’s pay account to pay your #1 employee, you.
• Then you will need a Tax account to save for taxes.
• Then you will have a profit account.
• You then fill them in this order: Profit Account, Tax Account, Owner’s Pay, Operating.
• Revenue – Profit = Expenses, not Revenue – Expenses = Profit

Talk to us about building a 7-figure lifestyle business…how do we do it?

• Jackson’s first business failed tremendously.
• He started a fashion business and taught himself on the go.
• He had some success in getting known and some sales, but the business was hemorrhaging cash.
• He wasn’t passionate about it and he built for the blind pursuit of money. A big mistake.
• He was burning the candle at both ends hating it.
• He was deep in debt, but knew he had to get rid of it, so he did.
• He went back to his roots and his passionate focus which was helping people learn to have financial success creating a 7-figure business.
• How did he do it?
  • He got educated and self-educated on what he needed to know. The right strategies.
  • He created a game plan – a 1 page game plan framework that was a working document that gave clarity.
  • He then focused on his numbers and started tracking everything in his business so he could predict, forecast, and run the business more efficiently.

What has surprised you most on your journey?

• How difficult it is to get yourself out of the technician role, the doing, and become the leader building he business systems, teams, etc.
• Are you building a business around you or a business that can be scaled?
• Are you building it for you to be the hero and to feed your ego? Is that the right way?

Books that made a big difference for you?

• 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris
• Unshakable by Tony Robbins
• The Alchemist by Paulo Cuoelo

Best Quote: Revenue – Profit = Expenses; NOT Revenue – Expenses = Profit 

Jackson's Misfit 3:

1. Create your 10 Commandments. We need guiding principles for life and our finances that can be our compass.
2. Complete the annual roadmap. Go through the 20-year roadmap exercise and do it with your significant other independently
3. Create a time where you can review your finances for 90 minutes once per month – Your Money Meeting.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Carl Gould. Carl Gould is a worldwide leading authority on business and entrepreneurship. He is an entrepreneur who built three multi-million-dollar businesses by age 40. His company, 7 Stage Advisors, has mentored the launch of over five thousand businesses. Some of the companies he’s helped are companies like Allstate, American Idol, USA Olympic Track, IBM, McGraw-Hill and the US Army.

Carl created the farthest-reaching business mentoring organization in the world, and his methodologies are in practice in 35 countries. He has trained, certified or accredited over 7,000 Business Coaches and Mentors since 2002.

He has also written multiple books on the subject of business strategy, leadership and sustainable growth. He co-authored “Blueprint for Success” with Stephen R. Covey and Ken Blanchard; and his best-selling book, “The 7 Stages of Small Business Success”, lays out the formula for HyperGrowth. Needless to say, Carl is a wealth of entrepreneurial wisdom and I’m going to do my best to get everything I can out of him in our time together.

www.CarlGould.com

​ www.7StageAdvisors.com

Free business analysis to show the true potential of your business – can get it on the site.

Carl’s journey started in college. He was an accounting and finance student. He broke his leg pretty badly in his second year and had to leave school. He found himself with a broken leg that took 6 months to get better, broke, and needing to make money.

He started a design/build landscape company and doubled it every year for 7 years then sold. Then in the early 90’s, he started a construction company and grew it to 2004. He started coaching in 1990 after going through certifications. It was his side hustle in the 90’s. He then started his coaching/strategy business in the early 2000’s.

His passion is coaching and guiding small business owners. He still invests in other companies, real estate, etc.

What is the one thing you think matters most for success as an entrepreneur?

• Absolute 100% dogged determination.
• Among all the traits of entrepreneurs, resilience and determination are most critical.
• Adversity is always there, and the key is to keep getting back up and doubling down on yourself, your business, and you clients.
• If you keep showing your commitment that you will serve no matter what, you will see it through.

At the 8:30 mark, Carl shares his view on the short attention spans we have and how he sees it in context of success…

• The level of content has gotten so good that people are better educated consumers.
• People don’t cancel what they love, they cancel what stinks and is boring.
• They can see through it.
• It’s exciting because you have to be so on your game, but are rewarded, almost unfairly when you are.
• People are hungry for greatness.

Take us through the 7 Stages of Growth and Business Success…

• Carl developed this in the 90’s. It is model that has been validated over the years.
• Stage 1: Strategic Planning Stage. You need to have a compelling and inspiring vision and plan for the business.
• Stage 2: Specialty Stage. This is where you build your expert authority in your niche.
• Stage 3: Synergy Stage. This is where you build a team that is aligned with mission, vision, values, and purpose.
• Stage 4: Systems Stage. Document and build out the ecosystem to scale the business.
• Stage 5: Sustainability. You are starting to be known for something other than the utility of your product or service.
• Stage 6: Saleability. You maximize the value of your business and it is now an asset. There is also where you are mature and doing things like buying other companies or going public, etc.
• Stage 7: Succession. This is when a legacy business is born and is lasting.
• Sequence matters. You have to go through each stage and maximize it before going to the next one.

How does and entrepreneur execute in each stage?

• It is like going through the years of school.
• You have to fully immerse yourself in each stage.
• You have maximized stage 1 if you can answer the question, “What is so compelling about my business that my customers would be willing to leave from where they buy from now and buy from me and pay a premium? Would my competitors’ employees be willing to come work for me and earn less?
• In stage 2, you know you an expert when someone reaches out to you unsolicited and asks you for advice on your niche that is in the same industry.
• In stage 3, you know you have maximized if people are fully bought into your vision and do whatever it takes to help the business successful.
• In stage 4, you make the internal commitment to systematize every area of your business and have “your company way.” Once, it is fully documented and mapped out, you’ve done.
• In stage 5, you’re like a franchise and can expand and duplicated what you’ve done.
• In stage 6, you are building your management team to run the business instead of just you, the owner.
• In stage 7, when you can fire yourself and the next generation can take over, you’ve done it.

What are some of the biggest traps entrepreneurs fall into and how do we avoid them?

• Stage 1 planning is typically inadequate.
• Entrepreneurs fall in love with their product instead of falling in love with their client. They should focus on the client first.
• Pricing is also a trap/mistake entrepreneurs make. You need to charge what your value is. Don’t get people to “just pay for your service.” You need to be a premium because you are bringing tremendous value – where you need to be good is at articulating the value.

Best advice for building rapport and influences? What are some of the best practices?

• The basis of any relationship is your ability to build rapport.
• There is a science of how we build, maintain, and nurture rapport.
• First, know your client by knowing behavior and personality styles (DISC, etc.)
• Rapport is the relationship of sameness, likeness, and commonality and it is an involuntary response – getting someone to like you.
• How we do anything is how we do everything – remember that. People have tendencies and are creatures of habits.
• Your ability to align with people’s tendencies and habits helps you build rapport.

Thoughts on leadership and how to be a successful leader?

• You need to be willing to do whatever you’re asking of someone, or have done it.
• You need to be willing to let someone else take the lead.
• You can be a leader from the front or the back (you can go first paving the way, or go last letting everyone else get the credit)
• You walk the talk without the talk. Do it and demonstrate the principles you want followed. ​

Anything else we should know?

• Outsourcing and building remote teams is a very important skill to learn.
• Your ability to “staff to valleys and are prepared for the peaks with variable costs.” This may be having contractors ready during peak times and not using them during slow times to help you manage the business better.
• The best way to remain nimble is to be good at expanding and contracting the business as needed to maximize your business.

Best Quote: Hustle. You can hustle your way to success. 96% of entrepreneurs never make it to $1 million in revenue. You absolutely can hustle to more than that.

Misfit 3:

1. Hustle. You can hustle your way to success. 96% of entrepreneurs never make it to $1 million in revenue. You absolutely can hustle to more than that.
2. There is less competition for the #1 slot in your niche. Go for #1. There is the least amount of competition to the be the best. Your clients will see this and love you for it.
3. I hereby decree, I hereby promise that I will not discount my way to market share. I will charge accordingly for my value.

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Hello Misfit Nation! I am excited to bring a special weekend episode of the Misfit Entrepreneur. Occasionally, I find something I truly enjoy and when I do I like to share it with you. In 2021 I’ve started listening more to the immersive shows on Wondery. If you haven’t checked it out, you need to do so.

Recently, I was able to connect with them and they offered to share a small sample of one of their new shows with the Misfit audience and that is what I want to share with you in this short special episode because it focuses on one of my favorite topics – the stories and successes behind some of the most inspiring businesses, creative innovators and intrepid entrepreneurs.

Secret Sauce is one of Wondery’s newest series, hosted by John Frye and Sam Donner. First up, they’re diving into the company that revolutionized how we vacation, travel, and even how we trust other people... Airbnb.

In 2008, Air Bed and Breakfast launched at SXSW (South by Southwest) with high hopes of becoming an alternative to overbooked hotels...but they ended up with just two people booking a stay...and one of them was a co-founder of the company. How did Airbnb persevere through adversity to become a company that would forever change the way we think about travel? What was their magic - their secret sauce - that made them such an unlikely success story? And what lessons can we learn from them?

You’re about to hear a preview of Secret Sauce. While you’re listening, subscribe to Secret Sauce on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or listen early and ad-free in the Wondery app by going to wondery.fm/SS_Misfit

Enjoy!

Hello Misfit Nation! Welcome to another edition of "Lessons for Hannah!" In November of 2016, we introduced a new format that we are putting alongside our regular episodes called “Lessons for Hannah.” Hannah is my daughter and one of the main inspirations for the Misfit Entrepreneur. I wanted to have a place where she could go and learn from her daddy and his Misfit friends throughout her life….even after I am gone. If you haven’t listened to the first episode of "Lessons for Hannah," I urge you to as it gives some more background and tells the amazing story of how Hannah came to be in our lives.

"Lessons for Hannah" are short, very useful, and sometimes comical lessons, that I have learned which I want to share with you and give to Hannah to help in your lives. Because I want Hannah to have these for her life, I’m going to speak as though I am talking directly to her. These episodes are a lot of fun and if you think there is a lesson that we should include in these episodes, please don’t hesitate to send it over to us at support@misfitentrepreneur.com. We’d love to share it.

This week’s Lesson for Hannah

Hannah, I want to speak to you about sacrifice. Your life is going to be filled with it. When most people hear the word sacrifice, they think of it in a negative way. But I want you to know that sacrifice, more often is good and brings good into our lives.

No matter who you are or your status in life, life is hard. It is full of twists, turns, wonderful moments, amazing experiences, happiness, sadness, love, suffering, and sacrifice. And each person has to navigate life in their own way and each person will work through the challenges of life in their own way.

But, if we can build a positive relationship with sacrifice and see it for what it is – a natural steppingstone to bettering our lives, we can use our sacrifices to make ourselves better, create opportunities, and have a better life.

What do I mean? As we go through life, we will encounter challenges in every area. We will have challenges in our work lives, in our personal lives, and even be affected by things we cannot and do not have control over. You will have to make sacrifices all the time.

A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what is right and hard, and what is easy. It is very tempting to take the easy path and not go through the struggle. But the easy path many times leads to bad outcomes. For example, it is easier for a married couple having issues in their lives and marriage to get a divorce than it is to work on the problems together and overcome them. But those that do make the commitment to work together to overcome their challenges come out with stronger, more loving relationships and are happier than those that don’t. At least I can say that is what has been shared with me from those I have spoken to over the years who have been in those situations.

By the same token, it is easier to set aside big problems in business and one’s work and just pretend they don’t exist. This avoidance usually leads to the problem growing bigger and festering to a point where it must be dealt with and at that point it is much larger and more painful than it would have been if handled earlier.

I’ve made many sacrifices in my life, so has your mother. And we will continue to have them and to make them. I know that sometimes, in making the sacrifices it makes things harder in the short term, but in the long term, it is worth it. I think you’ve seen this already even as young as you are. If you’ve ever heard of “delayed gratification,” this is where it comes from. Making a sacrifice in the short term for a bigger gain in the long term. I know and trust in that if I make a sacrifice for the right reasons, it will turn out good in some way, shape, or form in my life and it almost always does. Delayed gratification has paid off for me big time over the years. Therefore, I do not shy away from these times in life, but welcome them and am prepared for them as best I can be.

I hope that you can learn to do the same. To embrace that life is full of sacrifices, choices we must make – and that as much as possible, we must make the right choice, even if it is hard, maybe even painful in some way in our lives. Just know that it is worth it. The pain will be short-lived and lead to a better, richer life, and make you stronger.

Hannah, don’t be afraid of sacrifice. Embrace it and watch for the good that comes from it.

I love you,

Daddy

Best Quote: A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what is right and hard, and what is easy.

Misfit 3:

1. When most people hear the word sacrifice, they think of it in a negative way. But I want you to know that sacrifice, more often is good and brings good into our lives.
2. A sacrifice is really a choice. Many times, it is a choice between what is right and hard, and what is easy.
3. Embrace that life is full of sacrifices, choices we must make – and that as much as possible, we must make the right choice, even if it is hard, maybe even painful in some way in our lives. Just know that it is worth it.

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This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is David Shriner-Cahn. David is the host of the wildly popular Smashing the Plateau podcast and his business helps consultants and coaches build their business following their careers as professionals employed in the marketplace. Simply put, David helps employees’ transition to thriving entrepreneurs.

He has been features in Forbes, INC, and many other outlets and is also a popular speaker. David’s mission to help people become entrepreneurs was born out of his experience of being a highly successful employee for 28 years only to wake up one day and be told it was over. He had to go through losing his job and identity to finding a new path as an entrepreneur and his experience and what he has learned can help so many that are in the same situation, so I’m excited to get into it.

www.SmashingthePlateau.com

David has a master’s in engineering from Cornell. He worked as an engineer early in his career and then transferred after a job loss to the not-for-profit sector. He had no formal training to become a not-for-profit executive and did that for 23 years. He had plateaued in the organization and could not become the CEO as he was in the #2 position. He decided that it was time to scratch entrepreneur itch he had most of his life and became a consultant.

He had built a network that he used to start his business.

What do you think is the hardest part about transitioning from an employee to entrepreneur? And talk to use about “chicken entrepreneurship.”

• The challenge with “chicken entrepreneurship” is deciding when you are ready.
• You real need to be mentally ready.
• The first step is the hardest piece for everyone.

What does that look like to be ready in your mind? How does someone know?

• Most of the time, you don’t know.
• It is when you have enough courage to jump and do it.
• What most have never done is the business piece – building and running a business day to day.
• The knowledge base someone has gained from their role over the years to solve a problem and set of problems is important to build your business around.
• You won’t know how to do everything, but you must be willing to work to figure it out as you go and take it as it comes.

Thoughts on the mind shift that has to happen?

• Its both a mindset and behavioral shift.
• If you are employee and are wrong 10% of the time, you are going to hear about it and not in a positive way. If you are an entrepreneur and right more than 10% of the time, you are probably doing well. It’s a big change to get used to.
• As an entrepreneur, you are going to try and fail all the time to succeed.

Is there a process people go through to manage the transition from employee to entrepreneur?

• It’s very helpful to have time for reflection and take some time not focused on producing income. You need time to focus inwardly.
• You can also see if you can get a role that is time limited, a short contract gig to pay bills while you get your business going.
• Step 2 is getting in touch with a few things about yourself and your impact.
• Understand what you love doing the most and are committed to.
• Get clarity on what it is you are most competent and doing – they may or may not be the same as what you love doing. Find the intersection of them.
• Then decide who you want to serve and what problem(s) you will solve for them.
• Next, do a little market research to determine there is a market and potential clients. Talk to them and see if they would hire you to solve the problem(s).
• You then need to test and start trying things and iterate.

Talk to us about the business side and running the business once up and going…

• How much money do you want to make? Margins matter because it is almost impossible to make up low margins with volume.
• You need to think about how many hours you want to put in. You can make more money, but not more hours.
• How much do you want your business to be about your own personal brand or not? How much is it based on you? This determines how you design things.

At the 27 min mark, David and I talk about why most people don’t get what they want… What are some of the best resources and tools you’ve found to help entrepreneurs?

• First, manage your processes with pencil and paper or typing out the steps.
• Pay attention to things that are repetitive.
• Once you track then, you can create systems that are repeatable around these processes so they can be handed off to others.
• Once you’ve done this, it will start to show what types of solutions you need to put in place for these needs such as technology, apps, virtual assistants, or assistants, etc.

At the 33 min mark, we discuss the #1 cause of business failure…

• The #1 cause is cashflow and managing it properly.
• Have appropriate cash reserves for hard times
• Sales is not cashflow. You have to collect the money.

Best practices around life/work design?

• We are whole human beings, and we need to integrate.
• It should all be working toward our higher purpose. So be very clear as to what this is.
• Clearly define your goals.

Other advice for entrepreneurs?

• Apply for credit when you don’t need it because that is when you are most likely to get it.

Best Quote: If you are employee and are wrong 10% of the time, you are going to hear about it and not in a positive way. If you are an entrepreneur and right more than 10% of the time, you are probably doing well. It’s a big change to get used to.

David's Misfit 3:

1. When you are faced with a major transition, take time for self-reflection. You will be much better off for doing so.
2. We do much better when we create structure. Most importantly, have a structure to create a positive mindset at the beginning of the day.
3. Be prepared to iterate. Breakthroughs are what others notice after you have taken hundreds or thousands of pivots.

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