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00:00:01
How a Health Crisis Changed Everything About His Business
28 Plays15 days ago
In this episode, Ken Freire sits down with Stephen Powell to unpack what it really looks like to build and grow a business when life throws serious health challenges your way. Stephen shares his powerful story of surviving a near-fatal aortic dissection and stroke, how that moment reshaped his priorities, and why it led him into wealth management focused on everyday families—not just the ultra-wealthy. Together, they explore faith, family, resilience, and how solopreneurs can build meaningful businesses without sacrificing what matters most.
Resources Mentioned
• Powell Financials – https://powellfinancials.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-powell-8b0a234b/
• Stephens Cell Phone #850-209-4165
Timestamps
• 00:00–02:00 - why this conversation matters for solopreneurs facing health or time constraints
• 02:00–04:30 – Stephen’s background, family life, and transition from disaster recovery to wealth management
• 04:30–07:00 – The medical crisis: stroke, aortic dissection, and surviving against the odds
• 07:00–10:00 – Processing mortality, faith, and the emotional wake-up call
• 10:00–13:00 – Reprioritizing life: family, faith, and redefining hustle culture
• 13:00–16:30 – Why talking to friends and family about finances truly matters
• 16:30–20:30 – Wealth management basics people overlook: life insurance, long-term care, and business protection
• 20:30–24:30 – Balancing health, business, and fatherhood after major surgery
• 24:30–27:30 – Practical prioritization frameworks and daily rhythms
Recommended
Transcript
Balancing Business and Health Challenges
00:00:00
Ken Freire
How do you grow a business when you have health issues or time is needed? Everything that you need to do is go, go, go for a business, but you know you can't give 100%. Well, that's what we're going to talk about today with Stephen
Introduction to Stephen Powell and His Business Journey
00:00:17
Ken Freire
Powell. Stephen, thank you for being on the Solo Scaled podcast.
00:00:22
Stephen Powell
Thank you, Ken. It's great to be here. look forward to it and sharing a little bit about me.
00:00:26
Ken Freire
Yeah, well, I appreciate you, your transparency, your honesty that we're going have, because I think a lot of times in online businesses, right? What you get is, here's this awesome story. Here's the epicness. Here's what I've done.
00:00:40
Ken Freire
But then you don't hear the real life stories, the things that people struggle with, right? And how do you overcome those? So that's what I'm looking forward to our conversation
From Disaster Recovery to Wealth Management
00:00:48
Ken Freire
today. Stephen, before we do a deep dive into your story, give us like a 20 second rundown about your business.
00:00:56
Stephen Powell
Sure, Ken. So I'm based in Alabama, but I have license in 23 different states here in the United States.
00:01:02
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:01:04
Stephen Powell
And I help those families that don't get the same opportunity as a very wealthy here. You know, as a wealthy, you get plenty of financial opportunities, plenty of people knocking your door.
00:01:17
Stephen Powell
So we kind of help that 95, 90 percent population that doesn't get that same opportunity.
00:01:21
Ken Freire
Yeah. And specifically like wealth management services, correct?
00:01:24
Stephen Powell
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
00:01:25
Ken Freire
I love it. I love it. So Stephen, tell us your story. Like how did you get into wealth management and what happened?
00:01:31
Stephen Powell
So I started out for 17 years. I was working in disaster recovery and doing very well, making making good money and just traveling United States.
00:01:43
Stephen Powell
I got married in 2017 and had a daughter and then few years later had another daughter.
00:01:49
Ken Freire
Love it.
00:01:49
Stephen Powell
And So if you, you know, you coming from a dad yourself, you know, leaving home with kids is hard to do. So, you know, as I would go out on the road and have to kiss the girls goodbye, it got harder and harder.
00:01:57
Ken Freire
Oh man, for sure.
00:02:04
Ken Freire
Oh, it's heartbreaking, man.
00:02:06
Stephen Powell
You know, the wife would send me a picture of my youngest baby on a play phone and she'd ask who you talk to and she'd say daddy. And, you know, that kind of stuff's hard to deal with, whatever you know you don't see them for a few months. And so, you know, as I would come home, I would visit with them and spend good time
Life-Changing Health Crisis and Its Impact
00:02:23
Stephen Powell
with them. But then in 2022, one morning I was working out here in the gym and I felt a pain come through my chest. And as that pain come through my chest, I thought maybe I just turned something wrong.
00:02:38
Stephen Powell
So once I stood up, I felt a pain shoot through my back and I was on the ground before I could respond.
00:02:44
Ken Freire
Dude, that's crazy.
00:02:45
Stephen Powell
And as I'm laying there, you know, you pretty much are out of it. I had a stroke and aortic dissections, what they call it, as well as a partially collapsed lung all at the same time.
00:02:57
Stephen Powell
And they didn't expect me to make it. My wife was told to call in the family and prepare for the worst. And so, you know, by God's grace, I'm here.
00:03:10
Stephen Powell
The surgeon did not want to do the surgery, but he knew there's no other way. So he did open heart surgery on me. And as I was covering, I thought, you know, if something would have happened to me that I didn't make it through that day, don't know how my family would have survived.
00:03:24
Stephen Powell
We didn't have any type of life insurance.
00:03:24
Ken Freire
right.
00:03:27
Stephen Powell
I didn't have any set of, you know, long term financial goals for them set up. And so I started looking into how I could help families that may have a similar issue or, you know, looking for something to provide.
00:03:44
Stephen Powell
And I wanted it. And I found an opportunity for my kids to grow into a very solid financial future. And with that being said, I wanted to offer it to other families.
00:03:58
Stephen Powell
And so once I found the opportunity, I jumped on it. I immediately got my kids and all my family on the plan. And so, you know, offering it to other people, that's my goal now.
00:04:11
Ken Freire
Yeah. And what's fascinating that what you were doing was filling a need for yourself. You realized, I'm not set up to win. don't have my kids set up to win. And if this were to happen again, if?
00:04:23
Ken Freire
So then that brought you in this road now.
Explaining Aortic Dissection and New Perspectives
00:04:26
Ken Freire
You started doing it and then you realized, there's a lot of people who probably need this too.
00:04:27
Stephen Powell
Great.
00:04:30
Stephen Powell
Yeah, absolutely.
00:04:31
Ken Freire
Right. Walk us through before we get too much into the business side of things. You told me that in aorta disruption, right? Is that called it?
00:04:40
Stephen Powell
Dissection.
00:04:41
Ken Freire
Dissection. You use layman's terms before we hit the recording. What does that mean for people who have no idea what that means?
00:04:47
Stephen Powell
It's basically your aorta gets so large that the blood, that it can't hold the blood. It thins out the walls.
00:04:54
Ken Freire
Okay.
00:04:56
Stephen Powell
And it can't hold the blood that's pumping through it. And so it busts, if you will. And that's what happened. And then the blood that's inside just, you know, it doesn't go to your heart.
00:05:07
Ken Freire
It goes everywhere.
00:05:09
Stephen Powell
It just goes wherever it ends up inside your body. Probably the most popular that a lot people would realize is John Ritter, who years ago played on Three's Company.
00:05:17
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:05:20
Stephen Powell
That's actually what happened to him was the same thing.
00:05:23
Stephen Powell
except unfortunately he didn't make it.
00:05:26
Ken Freire
Now, so he doesn't make it. You, by God's grace, made it. what causes this? You know, because you were you we were talking about you wanting to potentially bring awareness for people. But what causes that? Is that diet issue, health issues, genetics, or is that just some random chance that it happens?
00:05:44
Stephen Powell
It's mainly genetics. Once it happened to me, as we got to looking through my family,
00:05:46
Ken Freire
Okay.
00:05:50
Stephen Powell
we've seen a lot more of it on my mom's side, her family.
00:05:53
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:05:54
Stephen Powell
And so that's the main cause of it. Of course it can be diet, you know, you're just your normal unhealthy issues, but it's mainly going to be genetics that's tied to it.
00:06:05
Ken Freire
Yeah. When you heard that you were going to die, and to give you context to this, when I was 19, I almost died. I had a tumor my neck and I thought I was going to die. Doctors were like, hey, I think you're going to die.
00:06:13
Stephen Powell
Hmm.
00:06:15
Ken Freire
I'm like, that's never the news you ever want hear.
00:06:19
Ken Freire
How did you process that information?
00:06:22
Stephen Powell
Ken, as I'm laying there on the gurney, because of course the guys in the gym had called 911 and got the ambulance and got me to the hospital. And I was in and out of consciousness. And so I'm laying there on the gurney and I hear a male voice. don't know if it a doctor, nurse, whoever. I hear male voice say he's not going to make it.
00:06:44
Ken Freire
hmm
00:06:44
Stephen Powell
And I can't respond, of course, because I've had a stroke, so I can't talk. I can't communicate at all. And anyone who knows me knows I was a wide open type person.
00:06:56
Stephen Powell
I mean, I, you know, it's hard to keep me still. And when that when I heard that. As crazy as it sounds, I hope it doesn't sound too crazy, but you being a man of faith, I hope you can appreciate this.
00:07:09
Stephen Powell
I saw a vision and. At the time, I had no idea who I was seeing. It wasn't a dream because I couldn't make out the resemblance. I saw a vision, and months later, I saw It was a man. He had an overalls. He had a fedora hat, big guy.
00:07:30
Stephen Powell
And months later, it come to me that that could be my granddaddy that passed away when I was seven, eight years old, 40-plus years ago. Right. And so I call my mom immediately. I said, Mom, did Granddaddy ever wore fedora? And because I knew it were overall and it was a big guy.
00:07:48
Stephen Powell
And she said, yeah. And when I saw that, that whatever it was, don't know, I feel like it was God sending something to calm me down. And when I saw that, I felt immediate peace come over me.
00:07:58
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:08:03
Stephen Powell
that i could never explain to anybody that hasn't experienced it really hope nobody thinks i'm crazy you know or anything like that because you know ever since i've realized that's who it was i've stood by this it was definitely god giving me that comfort at the time because otherwise i probably wouldn't have made it i probably would have you know, not had that peace and just continue to be too excited and uptight and have all the issues there.
00:08:33
Ken Freire
Yeah. It seemed like not only did you have a physical miracle of like being saved because of this, but also there was like some emotional and mental healing that you're like, hey, I used to be a certain way, but I kind of got a wake up call and I need to change.
00:08:52
Stephen Powell
Definitely. Definitely.
Business Perspective Shift: Family Over Hustle
00:08:54
Ken Freire
So with that, how does that now affect your business life? Because it sounds like you were doing one thing and then you kind of moved it, you morphed and started doing another thing.
00:09:06
Stephen Powell
it's given me more calmness about myself, not being in that rush, not being in that uptight where I've got to go, got to go, got to go.
00:09:18
Stephen Powell
You know, when you, when you, you probably similar situation, whenever you was diagnosed with yours, you know, you take the small things and, and they mean a lot more to you.
00:09:28
Stephen Powell
You know, the fact that I could come home and,
00:09:28
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:09:31
Stephen Powell
kiss my daughters and kiss my wife and, you know, spend time watching TV and working my oldest daughter on softball. It changes that whole perspective of I've got to get to work. I've got to do this. I've got to do that too.
00:09:45
Stephen Powell
You know what? That stuff will be there tomorrow when I sit at my desk.
00:09:49
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah. It slows down and you're reminded about what really matters in life.
00:09:56
Stephen Powell
Right.
00:09:56
Ken Freire
Because so many times people get stuck in the hustle culture where they're like, oh, well, let me answer 10 more emails. Let me make 20 more phone calls. Let me work till 7 p.m.
00:10:05
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:10:05
Ken Freire
But all along, your kids are just there waiting. Like, I wonder when dad wants to play with me.
00:10:10
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:10:10
Ken Freire
I wonder when they want to spend time with me.
00:10:11
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:10:12
Ken Freire
And it's like, oh, this is that wake-up call to be like, no, I'm going to be here.
00:10:15
Stephen Powell
Mm-hmm.
00:10:16
Ken Freire
I'm going to remember these moments.
00:10:18
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:10:19
Ken Freire
My wife and I, we talk about this a lot, that there's like, We'll never, we have a lot of memories of the first time people do, our kids do stuff, but we don't have a lot of lasts.
00:10:31
Stephen Powell
Mm-hmm.
00:10:31
Ken Freire
Like when's the last time you're gonna hug your daughter or cuddle with your daughter, right? Or when is she gonna sit on your lap and, know, I have a four year old and she likes to cuddle with me. But at one point they go from being on your lap to sitting next to you.
00:10:44
Stephen Powell
Yeah. Yeah.
00:10:45
Ken Freire
And it's like, oh, when does, like, do we stop to remember those moments?
00:10:49
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:10:50
Ken Freire
Or give them a piggyback ride. Or all these little things that we just forget because we're in such a rush thinking that our business is the ultimate thing. And if we don't slow down enough, man, our business could just eat us alive.
00:11:07
Ken Freire
And this is where you've come in and you're like, no, man, I realize that there's more to life than just business.
00:11:14
Stephen Powell
And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.
00:11:14
Ken Freire
So go for it.
00:11:17
Ken Freire
Go for it.
00:11:17
Stephen Powell
I think the hardest thing for me was whenever I was in the floor of that gym
The Role of Financial Planning in Crisis Prevention
00:11:23
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:11:23
Stephen Powell
and I couldn't speak.
00:11:24
Stephen Powell
A guy from our church was actually calling my wife to tell her that I'd had a stroke. And me not being able to I wanted so bad to say, tell my wife and kids I love them.
00:11:36
Stephen Powell
And I couldn't get it out. And so your listeners, anybody out there, I would say never miss that opportunity tell somebody you love them.
00:11:46
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah. And it's so crazy because we know it to be true. but we just forget it. So it's such a huge reminder. Like these are the moments that we live for.
00:11:57
Ken Freire
This is the moments that you, the reason you started your business in the first place is because you want to be like a present for your family.
00:11:58
Stephen Powell
Right.
00:12:06
Ken Freire
So fast forward with me, Stephen, you get through the hospital, you go through this, you start doing rehab and you start this wealth management service business. Cause you're like, man, people need to be set up for life way more than they are right now.
00:12:22
Ken Freire
How do you start growing it? Because, you know, people struggle growing businesses, but how do you do it?
00:12:28
Stephen Powell
I start out with the people I know, the people closest to me. They're the ones who I know could benefit from it. You know, when I don't want to be that person who you go to your first cousin's funeral,
00:12:44
Stephen Powell
And his wife's standing there and saying, why didn't you help me?
00:12:50
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:12:51
Stephen Powell
So I started out with my family, my closest friends. And now it's since I've gotten licensed in a lot more states, I'm working on the online, the posting, trying to bring more awareness to people who, you know, everybody knows they need it, but not everybody wants to get And so that's where I'm headed with it now is just getting more awareness out there, letting people see what I can do, how can help them.
00:13:20
Stephen Powell
And some people, it's not for everybody. Some people are not willing to face it right now. And that's understandable. And that's OK.
00:13:30
Stephen Powell
But when they are, I'm here.
00:13:33
Ken Freire
I love it, man. And as you think about your friends and family, know a lot of people who are nervous to talk to their friends and family for a number of reasons, right? They're like, oh, I can't tell them about my business.
00:13:46
Ken Freire
How do you help those people overcome that?
00:13:48
Stephen Powell
This is going to be another tragedy, and I feel sorry for her. Got to keep bringing up bad thoughts.
00:13:55
Ken Freire
No, no, no, man. We keeping it deep. fine. It's real.
00:13:57
Stephen Powell
But I had a lady who I helped, and I started her in the business with me, coaching her and bringing her along. And she was that same way. She was ashamed to talk to any friends and family. She didn't want to harass them to feel harassed or anything like that. Understandably so.
00:14:17
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:14:18
Stephen Powell
Last year, her sister was killed. And brutal guy walks up, she's on the back porch, just shoots her.
00:14:30
Stephen Powell
They had to use GoFundMe to afford her funeral.
00:14:34
Stephen Powell
And, you know, had she been willing to offer that to her sister? Who knows? You know, her kids wouldn't have had to rely on that GoFundMe or, you know, her final expense. And you don't want to. I definitely don't want to scare anybody.
00:14:52
Stephen Powell
But it's a matter. It's a fact. You know, at my same situation, it could happen to me very easily and my kids my wife. If that would have happened that day, January 26, 2022, they been the same situation.
00:15:06
Stephen Powell
And so that's how I want, you know, the people to see it is to talk to their their friends, their family, because you don't want to put them in that situation. Whenever it's so, so easy to to prevent it, you know, very affordable.
00:15:22
Stephen Powell
To prevent that, go fund me or, you know, whatever it may be.
00:15:28
Ken Freire
Yeah. You know, what's crazy about that is know so many people who struggle with going out and reaching out to their friends and families because they're afraid that they're going to get rejected.
00:15:43
Ken Freire
But you just talked about like having a conviction for something greater than the rejection. Like imagine if you could have set this family up to win, like your sister was set up to win and their kids were set up to win. Like they have to have a conviction to be like, oh yeah, I'm willing to sell this.
00:16:00
Ken Freire
And I think, man, honestly, there are some people just don't have that conviction.
00:16:01
Stephen Powell
Yep.
00:16:05
Ken Freire
They're like, they forget their why. They don't know what's the reasoning. They jump into starting a business because they thought, oh, I'm going to have time freedom. And sometimes I joke around people.
00:16:15
Ken Freire
I'm like, you're trading your nine to five for 24-7.
00:16:19
Ken Freire
You don't it up right. You know what mean?
00:16:36
Ken Freire
Right now, as you're trying to grow your business, Stephen, what's the challenge that you're having in growing your business?
Challenges of Outreach and Technology in Business Growth
00:16:44
Stephen Powell
Outreach.
00:16:46
Stephen Powell
You know, I do have a limited outreach. I'm on the older technology side, so I don't have the know how of a lot of the younger people.
00:16:57
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:58
Stephen Powell
And that's the great thing. You know, AI is coming along so far. I'm trying to learn that as much as I can because. somebody who I follow says, hey, I won't take a job, but people who know it will. And I believe that, you know, so that's the most difficult for me is just reaching the people that that need it and.
00:17:22
Stephen Powell
Being able to to offer that to them and just get them, you know. I try everything I can to bring awareness to to reach more people.
00:17:31
Ken Freire
Yeah. Well, and I appreciate the awareness that you are bringing to people. Let me ask this for those who are listening. They might have a business. They might be like, oh, man, yeah, I could use wealth management services.
00:17:43
Ken Freire
What kind of wealth management services do you typically offer? And what do people typically or maybe a better way to ask is like, what do people typically need that they just think they're going to be OK without it?
00:17:57
Stephen Powell
There's several different options for especially for business owners that we can do.
00:18:00
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:18:02
Stephen Powell
You know, you have what we call key person insurance, where if that key person to your company passes or leaves, you know, you're able to have a large amount of money to replace that person or to sustain your business until it does happen.
00:18:23
Stephen Powell
we're able to, for partners in business, we're able to offer where if something were to happen to one, you know, and the spouse takes it over or kid takes it over and a kid don't want to run the business, then the other partner is able to buy them out without going into a lot of trouble. we're able to, that,
00:18:46
Stephen Powell
Income, that breadwinner, if you will, that comes into the family, we're able to take that and sustain that family, maybe even leave them in a better position than where they were.
00:18:57
Stephen Powell
We're able to offer long term care, which is the number one cause of poverty in middle class America today for basically pennies on the dollar.
00:19:05
Ken Freire
Well,
00:19:06
Stephen Powell
You know, you got long term care. You've got all types of business opportunities. You name it. If it involves money, I can help you in some way.
00:19:18
Ken Freire
yeah, that's cool, man.
00:19:18
Stephen Powell
All I need is somebody to to reach out to me, tell me what they're looking for or maybe what their situation I don't tell me they're looking for. Just tell what the situation is. I can definitely come up with a plan that would benefit them.
00:19:26
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:19:29
Ken Freire
I had a mentor. He actually was my, I'll call him my wealth management mentor. He was one taught me about wealth and generating wealth when I was 19.
00:19:36
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:19:39
Ken Freire
Didn't know anything. Great friend to this day. But about three years ago now, he had a stroke and he still can't talk. He still can't walk fully functional. But if it wasn't for long-term disability insurance, he would be screwed.
00:19:53
Ken Freire
And he was the one who was always telling me, he's like, Ken, you should get long-term disability insurance. I'm like, dude, I'm 20, I'm 25. You know, and he's like, well, one, you almost died once when you were 19.
00:20:04
Ken Freire
So wake up call.
00:20:05
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:20:06
Ken Freire
And two, he's like, you're never promised tomorrow.
00:20:06
Stephen Powell
Right.
00:20:09
Ken Freire
But your kids are going to be here.
00:20:11
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:20:12
Ken Freire
Right? So like, you prepare, you know, nice to have like life insurance and stuff. But he's, I remember him telling me that. And I kid you not, when I found out that he got a stroke, and he's like, we don't know if we will be ever able to walk.
00:20:26
Ken Freire
I was like, this is why you need long-term disability insurance, just in case, you know, for those situations.
00:20:30
Stephen Powell
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:33
Ken Freire
Steven, walk us through for you, man. You started this business. You're trying to outreach. I know having a stroke, it's kind of like one of those things that you never get back to 100%.
00:20:45
Ken Freire
So how are you managing your health and a business and a family?
Faith, Family, and Health Management
00:20:51
Ken Freire
Does it take a toll on you? Like, how are you dealing with all of it?
00:20:56
Stephen Powell
Priorities. You know, I've had to stop. And like I said earlier, just prioritize God, wife, kids, business, kind of that faith, family finances situation.
00:21:10
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:21:15
Stephen Powell
So, you know, I work as many hours as I possibly can. but I'm not going to allow that to take away from my faith, from my family, then going to put in the work time.
00:21:30
Stephen Powell
So, you know, my oldest daughter, she's 10. She's in softball, wide open. You know, when she gets off the bus at 3 o'clock, I'm going to shut down things for a few minutes. We're going go outside. We're going work on softball.
00:21:46
Stephen Powell
I'm going come back in about 530, do a little more work to finish out the day, and then go enjoy the rest the evening with the family. Some days with my health, I'm not as able to go out there and work on the softball as I want to.
00:22:00
Stephen Powell
So it's a sit down and watch type deal. But fortunately, she was only six when it happened.
00:22:10
Stephen Powell
And my youngest baby, who was four, just turned four, she was only two months old when it happened.
00:22:15
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:16
Stephen Powell
So kind of the good thing is they've seen me through these health problems. It wasn't like daddy was going, going, going for them. And then all a sudden it stopped. It's been kind of, we know daddy's had these problems.
00:22:32
Stephen Powell
It's very difficult, Ken. It really is. You know, especially when she does want to go out there and play softball or my four-year-old wants to swing for half a day.
00:22:42
Stephen Powell
You know, just frustrating. And, you know, But you do what you got to do. You know, at the end of the day, I'm trying to stay healthy for them.
00:22:52
Stephen Powell
I had to have another second open heart surgery. And said I would never go through that again. The absolute worst experience you can imagine.
00:23:01
Ken Freire
yeah
00:23:02
Stephen Powell
I said I would never go through it again. But then and last year, November of last year, it was said that, you know, if I don't have it, I could very easily. have the same problem and probably wouldn't make the odds or not you make it twice if you happen that.
00:23:17
Stephen Powell
And so because of them, because of my family, I said, let's do it. And that was the only reason I did it was just so I could hopefully see them walk down the aisle.
00:23:30
Stephen Powell
I joke them they can't date till they're 45, Uh, you know, there's nothing that would make me happier that, that to see them grow and succeed.
00:23:33
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:23:41
Stephen Powell
And, and, uh, if that happens again, I wouldn't be able to do that. So you've just gotta, you've just gotta focus on what's important to you. like I say, if, if a client needs something, they can bet that I'm going to answer the phone.
00:23:56
Stephen Powell
I'm going to respond, but, You know, I've got the priorities as well. And I haven't had an issue with client not understanding that.
00:24:05
Ken Freire
Yeah. Do you when you talk about priorities? Is there like a framework that you might use? Because I know with with certain people like with health issues, they prioritize their health, they might say something like, hey, I always prioritize my health or I always prioritize that I work from eight to 12 or, you know, I'm sleeping eight hours a day, type of frameworks that you use to help you prioritize and get the stuff done that needs to get done?
00:24:33
Stephen Powell
It's really when I dropped my youngest off at K3 in the morning and I'm home alone.
00:24:38
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:40
Stephen Powell
You know, my wife, she works as a nurse practitioner. So she's gone. My daughter's gone to school. Mother was going to K3. And so I use that time to to do my work.
00:24:53
Stephen Powell
And then, like I say, as they start coming in, I'll do it sporadically, you know, And a of days at two o'clock, I get so tired, so wore out from my medical condition that I just have to break away.
00:25:06
Stephen Powell
But, you know, I pride myself on not missing any appointments, not missing any opportunities. But it just making sure that, like I say, my faith and my family comes before anything else.
00:25:19
Stephen Powell
And then we can negotiate the rest.
00:25:23
Ken Freire
Yeah, and that it's crazy when you flip it upside down like that. Because culture will tell us make work priority, and we kind of addressed this earlier, right?
00:25:33
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:25:34
Ken Freire
But you're like, no, let's flip into the safe faith and family first. And if we do those things well,
00:25:38
Stephen Powell
Yeah,
00:25:41
Ken Freire
work is going to come. God's going to bless that. He's going to bring the right people. And to make sure people don't hear this, we're not saying we're lazy. We're not saying we're not working. We're not saying we're doing any other things.
00:25:51
Ken Freire
We're just reprioritizing what's the most important thing in our lives.
00:25:55
Stephen Powell
Definitely.
00:25:56
Ken Freire
So, Stephen...
00:25:57
Stephen Powell
I'm not going to miss an opportunity with a client.
00:25:57
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:26:00
Stephen Powell
And I don't want to say that, you know. But I am saying that my priorities is in that order.
00:26:07
Ken Freire
Yeah. And that's super important for people to hear because it can be so counterintuitive.
00:26:10
Stephen Powell
Yeah.
00:26:13
Ken Freire
Steven, man, for you, one things that I like to do real quickly, and I forgot to mention this to you before recording, I like to give everyone who I talk to the first last
Rapid-Fire Business Insights
00:26:24
Ken Freire
five questions. These are kind of like rapid fire, just like top of your head. What is it that you want? Right. So everybody's being asked these same five questions. And part of the reason I'm asking these five questions is that I'm building a report, like a trend report of like, what are for small business owners, expert led business owners, what are they going through? What are they walking through? So we'd love for you to answer these five questions.
00:26:47
Ken Freire
And then we'll wrap our time here. How's that sound?
00:26:51
Stephen Powell
Sounds good.
00:26:52
Ken Freire
All right, so question number one is, what's something in your business you're experimenting with right now?
00:27:00
Stephen Powell
A lot more AI.
00:27:02
Ken Freire
Okay, a lot more AI, I love it.
00:27:04
Stephen Powell
As far as I will, being a single business owner, I'm looking forward to that scheduling help, that answering email help.
00:27:16
Stephen Powell
That's where I'm headed.
00:27:18
Ken Freire
I love it, man. I love it. The number two then question is, which part of your business feels the most influx these days?
00:27:26
Stephen Powell
sees the most influx.
00:27:27
Ken Freire
Yeah, like influx, like you're trying to figure out, it's not solidified.
00:27:33
Stephen Powell
The change in finance is always changing. The laws are always changing. The different opportunities are always changing. The company that has one program today, tomorrow it'll be a totally different program.
00:27:50
Ken Freire
Got it. Okay. Question number three, what's a goal you're building toward this year that you're really excited about?
00:27:58
Stephen Powell
The goal I'm building to is I want to have more people on my staff to help and a lot more clients.
00:28:07
Ken Freire
I love it. Do you have a number of how many staff you'd want?
00:28:10
Stephen Powell
I'd like to have 10.
00:28:12
Ken Freire
Okay. I like it. All right. Last question is when your kids grow up, what do you want them to know about you?
00:28:22
Stephen Powell
That daddy did all he could. to provide for them, to make sure they had a good life, that he loved Jesus, and that he was a hard worker.
00:28:32
Ken Freire
I love it, Stephen. Thank you so much for those. As you think about all that stuff in your business, there might be people who are interested in you because they're like, man, he's authentic. He's he gets it. He's trying to work with people who might not be the wealthy, but want to set them up for wealth.
00:28:51
Ken Freire
What's the best way to get in contact with you?
Connecting with Stephen Powell's Services
00:28:54
Stephen Powell
I've got a website, powelfinancials.com. I'm on Facebook as Powell Financials as well. LinkedIn is under Showtime Financials.
00:29:05
Stephen Powell
My number is 850-209-4165. just email me at steven at powelfinancials.com.
00:29:13
Ken Freire
Yeah, I love it. All that's going to be in the show notes for you guys. So if you're like, oh, man, that's going to super important for me to grab, grab it on the show notes. It's going to be there.
Podcast Wrap-up and Support for Solo Entrepreneurs
00:29:21
Ken Freire
Steven, thank you so much for, one, sharing your heart, sharing where you're at in your business, and just hopefully hope that this can help others grow theirs and continue to develop their processes, their systems. And excited how you're going use AI in the future, man.
00:29:36
Stephen Powell
Thanks, Ken. It was a pleasure speaking with you. I wish you the best.
00:29:41
Ken Freire
Thanks, man. And for all of you who are growing your business right now, as you're thinking about what can I do? Always remember, we are here in SoloSkill Podcast. We're helping you as an expert-led business.
00:29:53
Ken Freire
We know that you're doing this, you're growing solo, but we don't want you to do it alone. That's what we're here for. Hope guys have a great day.
00:30:01
Stephen Powell
Thanks.