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