SPI 512: Planning for the Future and Finding the Right Help

Announcer:
Welcome to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, where it's all about working hard now so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And here's your host. He's studying to learn how to grow coffee one day, so he can start his farm: Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn:
This past week we interviewed Joe Sanok from Practice of the Practice, who is the author of a new book called Thursday is the New Friday. You got to love that, right? Can you imagine starting your week on Monday and going, "You know what? I cannot wait till Thursday, because we going clubbing." Just kidding. I don't club anymore. But you know, you have Thursday night, that's when the weekend starts, Friday, all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and then you're back to work on Monday. And I had mentioned that, "Well, they're actually doing a four-day work workweek in Iceland." Eighty-five percent of the workers there are doing a four-day workweek, and productivity levels are up, stress levels are down, people are happier.

And I think that's starting to create this thought that, "You know what? Who created the five-day week anyway, and why is it like that?" And we've all been burnt out. We've all felt that maybe the weekend isn't quite long enough. What if we had an extra day? And we talk all about that in this episode and how to actually do this, how to implement it, what's important, all those kinds of things. And I just wanted to riff today because in our Friday follow-ups I always take the topic from the previous episode and just kind of riff with you. And we're going to riff for maybe 10, 15 minutes about the future, and where we're going, we don't need roads. We just need a microphone, and that's what we got.

I just got back at the time of this recording from Maui. My family and I, we went on a vacation during the summer before school started. The kids are now in sixth grade and third grade, just to give you an update. I have a friend, DJ Scoob, who's literally going back to episode one. This is somebody who recently discovered me and is going back to episode one and he's like, "I'm going to catch up." And so he's going to flip out when he hears this.

I don't know when he's going to be able to hear this, but he's been giving me updates on where he's at. He just the other day, he was like, "Oh, your son was just born." And I was like, "Wow, that's so crazy." And then he's like, "Oh, now your daughter was just born, and then I heard your son and daughter on your show," because they were on the show. And I haven't had them on a show in a while. I should actually make that happen. Let me know in the chat. Or not in the chat. Sorry, this isn't live. Let me know on Twitter or Instagram if you'd like to hear my family come back on the show at some time. It has definitely been a while.

But all this to say, thinking about the future, we got back from Maui. It was a really good trip and it was much, much needed, obviously with COVID and whatnot. We hadn't been traveling for a while. We travel a lot. We focus a lot here in the Flynn family on experiences rather than things, and those memories that we create are worth so much to us. And it's just been a lot of the memories during COVID were an above-ground pool that we had to blow up, and that was our pool time in the summer. And also gardening, and we made the best of it. You know, a lot of card games, board games, starting Pokémon a lot, a lot of things. A lot of good things came out that time at home together.

But you know, they're back in school, and it made me think, "We only have, with our son, seven summers left." If you remember the episode we did about the family board meeting, we talked about, "Well, how many summers are left with our kids?" And with me and my son, we only have seven summers left. And with my daughter, we only have 10 summers left before they're out. So, it makes us a) want to make sure that we spend as much time with them as possible to go on dates with them individually so they get some alone time with both sets of parents, or with both mommy and daddy.

And you know, it just blows my mind is thinking about, "Well, who are they going to be? What are they going to do? And are they going to go to college? And what are their interests going to be? Who are they going to date?" All this kind of stuff is so crazy to think about. But then after those summers are over, well, then what? Because a lot of the time spent now, especially April, is thinking about the kids and preparing them for their future as much as possible.

But you know, we've had conversations about our future together and where we want to end up, and it's motivating, right, to think about, truly think about, planning for your own future, your own next era in life. And no matter where you are, whether you have kids or not, there's always going to be a next era of life. If you're in college, obviously it's postgraduate. If you are in work, it perhaps is when you get that big promotion and you can start to unlock new things in your lifestyle with that income, or when you hit a certain number of savings or when you go on a certain life-changing trip. Things like that are amazing things that you could shoot for and create goals for.

We have a lot of goals with relation to our future, as far as where we might live, what we might do. And I wanted to just riff on this. It's going to be a little weird, but I wanted to talk about my coffee farm. Coffee farm? Yeah, a coffee farm. I've fallen in love with coffee. I'm quite addicted to it and have a couple of cups of joe per day. That's for you, Joe Sanok, our guest, a couple of cups of joe per day.

And there's a couple of places here in San Diego that roast their own beans, Mostra being one of them. Mostra Coffee, highly recommend them, Filipino-owned family. I've invested in that company, and they're doing really, really well, but they're also very friendly and they're very open with how things go, and I've gotten to know the team over there pretty well and learn just a little bit. I mean, just not even scratching the surface, but really, really getting curious about, well, how does this all work and where do these beans get sourced from? And what's the journey?

It's interesting because this is something that I've talked about on the show for a while. It was one of my fun facts in the beginning of an episode a while back, and people commented on it. They're like, "Oh yeah, hey, let me know when your coffee farm opens. I'll come by." And I'm like, "Well, it's going to be awhile. It's going to have to be in Hawaii, if there is a farm." I don't know if I'm going to live there or not, but that's where the farm would be because it's the only state in the US where coffee can really be grown because of the climate.

But more than that, we went on this chocolate factory tour, and this was my second chocolate factory tour. The chocolate factory tour I did first was actually in Berkeley. Scharffen Berger was the name of that factory. And this one was called Ku'ia, and this is in Maui. We went to their chocolate factory, and it was actually not really a tour. It was more of a presentation, but we got to do a chocolate tasting and stuff, which was really great.

And it was cool because we were there on a day where the founder of this chocolate actually gave the presentation, and his name was Gunars, G-U-N-A-R-S. He was actually a former biotech entrepreneur from, guess where, San Diego, which is actually where I'm from. So, there was already a connection there with that. And he said that he had sold his company, which I thought was really cool. He moved to Maui to retire, but then he got bored. And so he started to grow cacao beans or pods to supply them to the locals. And economically, it just didn't make sense to do that anymore, but in order to actually continue on doing that in this hobby that he started to really enjoy, he decided that, “You know what? I'm going to turn these cocoa beans into chocolate.”

And now he has some of the premiere chocolate that can only be found in Maui, mauichocolate.com, #notsponsored, but it was just so cool because I was like, "Wow, that's like me." I could see me going through that route of selling a business or going to retire, and then realizing that, you know what? I want this bigger thing to give back. And that's the cool thing about the Ku'ia Chocolate is that all profits are going to be going to charity, and you can look up different articles about him that have been written and whatnot. Again, G-U-N-A-R-S, last name Valkirs, V-A-L-K-I-R-S.

But it was just really interesting because this was another moment where it wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, I'm going to follow him exactly, and I'm going to try to get his number and try to get a mastermind with him," or anything like that. It was just more like, "Wow, hey, there's somebody who has done something similar to what I had been planning to do, or had thought about doing." So a) no longer can I say, "Oh, well, this is impossible," because somebody has done it once before. But number two, there is somebody out there who, if I ever wanted to get some feedback from, or ask questions about, entrepreneur to entrepreneur, if he was willing, I'm sure he'd be willing to share, or even if I had to pay to get access to that.

Because that has been the thing that has helped me more than anything with getting to where I want to go in life. It's got me to where I am now, and it's going to get me to where I want to go later. And that is finding people who have done it before and asking them how it's been done. Or if I don't have access to them, talk to somebody who has had access to them, or if I don't have access to that person, read some material, like a book that perhaps they have written. Or if they haven't written a book, find them on a podcast episode. Whatever the case may be, I'm always looking for not just, “Well, what's the next thing I should do, but who has done that already?” And that has sped up my learning process. That has sped up my efficiencies. That has allowed me to get to results much, much faster.

And I'm not saying that, "Okay, if somebody else teaches me how to do something, I'm automatically going to be doing it right." No, but I'll cut out so much of the error, and so much of the, not just the what I do error, but more the psychological error. Somebody telling me that I'm not alone when I'm approaching something new that I've never done before, that they were feeling the same things that I was feeling, that is so reassuring.

Because sometimes I think I'm crazy, and I know you think this sometimes too, whenever you're trying something new. We almost are so selfish that we think that we're so unique that we have these problems and nobody else does. But when we zoom out, there are many other people who've gone through the same things that we have. Therefore, there are many other people who can help us, who can guide us, who can be examples, or if anything, at least inspiration for that. And it's interesting because while in Maui, in one of the only places in the United States that I could grow coffee, here is a chocolate-tasting tour where I go on where I see an example of somebody much older, but who has gone through something that I was curious about.

I went up to him afterwards and thanked him for the presentation, told him a little bit about what I did, and made a connection. And I haven't reached out to him or anything yet, but I'm sure that one day in the future, especially him being from San Diego and likely traveling here every once in a while, fairly active on social media kind of thing, I could probably at least get on a call with him. Maybe if I put a large order of chocolate in, he might entertain that, if anything.

But all this just to say, it's interesting how the world works like that sometimes, because that wasn't planned. I didn't know he had this story, but it very much aligned with where I wanted to go. And it makes me wonder, "Okay, well, what else might I want to do?" Well, I'd like to own a boat one day. I've never owned a boat. I've been on many, many boats. I've loved going fishing with my dad when I was little, and I'd love to get back into it with my own kids and even my dad again.

But you know, owning my own boat, I wouldn't even know where to begin. I'm afraid of getting lost or driving it into something or someone, or hurting somebody. I don't want to do that. And on the way back from Maui, I sat next to somebody who started a conversation with me on the plane, and he was also from San Diego. We were obviously both airbound toward San Diego, so that made sense. He and his family had spent time in Hawaii, and we got talking and I discovered that this person was a tuna fisherman. He actually owns a boat in San Diego.

And I was like, "Wow, that's really interesting. I'd love to own a boat one day, but I'm really scared." And he said, "Yo, I felt the exact same way, like I was going to get lost or crash into people or something." And I said, "That's exactly how I feel." And he said, "Hey, you know what? I've been doing this for years. Let's exchange numbers, and I'd love to take you out on the bay, and I'd love to take you out and we can go tuna fishing and I can show you how it is. In case you ever really wanted to own your own boat and captain your own boat one day, you could just get a firsthand feel of what it's like." And again, the universe just having a way of plopping that in front of me.

And it's interesting because I had just prepared, on the plane, to spend five hours playing Minecraft. Yes, I play Minecraft. My kids and I play Minecraft together, and I was in the middle of building this world and something that I could spend some time doing on the plane, and anyway, I'm not even going to explain. I had my headphones out, I had my computer out, and then me and this guy, his name is Sean, started talking. And then we just literally spoke the whole time together, and we're now friends. I haven't yet gone on a boat with him at the time that I'm recording this, but it is something that once things get a little safer is likely going to happen. And it'll give me a firsthand experience from somebody who's done it before, who's had those same thoughts before about what it is actually like to own a boat?

You know, I have a lot of questions, and being on that boat with somebody who, guess what, owns a boat is going to be the best education I could have. Where do you put your boat? How much does it cost to keep your boat there? Who manages the boat? Do you have to radio signal people in that you're arriving, like you do with an airplane? How does the anchor work? What happens if your power goes out in the middle of the ocean? How do you know which way to go when you can't see land anymore? Over a rod and a reel, I'm sure I can get every single question answered. Eventually get to the point where I could realize that, “Okay, that's definitely something I want to do, or you know what? Now that I know what I need to know, I don't really want to do that anymore.” And either way I can move on.

Now, if fate puts those people in front of you, awesome. But if not, you need to go find them. You need to put yourself out there, and yes, it's going to get uncomfortable. It's going to put you out of your comfort zone, but that's where all the most amazing things happen, right? And I'll tell you, I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for the people who were around me. But I put myself in those places to be around those people. They didn't show up at my door. They didn't randomly stop me while walking through the mall. I put myself at those conferences. I put myself in those masterminds, and these connections happened as a result. So I don't know how we ended up here, but we did, because we were talking about the four-day workweek. But that made me feel like, “Okay, well, four days a week, I could spend the other three days fishing on a boat with my kids, my family, building memories that will last forever.”

I hope this episode made an impact on you in some way, shape, or form, and it was a really cool way to update you on some things that are happening in my life too. So either way, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for listening in on our Follow-up Friday episode. Make sure to go back and listen to episode 511 with Mr. Joe Sanok, an amazing episode that you won't want to miss, especially if you feel like you've been overworking and you're trying to restructure your life in a way that allows you to get more work done in less time and have a little bit more control. Go ahead and check it out next. Thanks so much. Appreciate you. Looking forward to serving you next week. Cheers.

Thanks for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I'm your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess, our series producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media. We'll catch you in the next session.